


No Kissing

by gr8_rach



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Fake Dating, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Kissing to Prove a Point, Mistletoe so much Mistletoe, Practicing Cuddling, Reyux, Sharing a Bed, Unnecessary Jealousy, accidental feelings, featuring all your favorite awkward tropes, giddy up y'all this is pure fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-13
Updated: 2017-06-02
Packaged: 2018-08-30 21:11:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 40,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8549254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gr8_rach/pseuds/gr8_rach
Summary: He’s sitting on the couch beside Rey and Ben, listening to them bicker about which episode of NCIS they watched last, when the idea hits him. It’s brilliant, it’s the solution to all of his problems, it’s...totally insane.Featuring: his roommate's best friend and a lie so crazy Hux is convinced it will never ever ever hold up. ....or will it?





	1. Chapter 1

He’s sitting on the couch beside Rey and Ben, listening to them bicker about which episode of NCIS they watched last, when the idea hits him. It’s brilliant, it’s the solution to all of his problems, it’s...totally insane.

How does he bring it up? 

_“Uh, yeah. Rey? I know we’ve met in passing a bunch of times because you’re my roommate’s best friend, but could you maybe, like…pretend to date me for a few months and then cruelly dump me so that my parents will leave me alone about dating for awhile?”_

Instead, he decides to say nothing.

It’s a few weeks later, during a very heated phone call with his mother (she’s scolding him again, about his lack of girlfriend despite his continued insistence that he doesn’t need any sort of relationship), that he finally snaps. 

“Will you chill, ma? I—” he hesitates, knowing that this is it, and he hasn’t even asked Rey yet. “I’ve been. I’ve—there’s a...girl.” 

The squeal from the other side of the phone is so loud that he has to pull it away from his ear. 

“Why—Armitage Hux, I can’t believe you! Why didn’t you tell me??” 

He sighs, hangs his head. Adjusts his glasses. 

“I didn’t want you to get too excited, ma.” he says, closing one eye and scrunching his nose. The movement jostles the frames again, and he reaches up to readjust them. 

“Too excited?” she yells, and he’s glad that he braced himself. “I have never been too excited about anything in my entire life. What do you mean, too excited?” 

“It’s—you’re doing it right now, ma.” 

“So should I make extra for Sunday dinner? Are you going to bring her to church?” 

Just then, the apartment door opens and in tumbles Ben, followed closely by Rey. 

“Ma, I gotta—I gotta go.” 

“Is she there? I want to say hi, Armitage!” 

“No, ma, I’ll call you about Sunday, I love you, bye!” and he clicks the end button and straightens. 

Rey and Ben are laughing, clutching each other, and Rey is doing this tiny snorting thing that’s...mildly appalling, actually. Still, it’s kind of funny, in that awkward left-out-of-a-joke way. 

“What’s so funny?” he asks. 

“I mean, I could tell you,” Ben says, straightening and wiping his eyes. “But I doubt you’d get it. You had to be there!” He doubles over again, giggling. 

Hux raises his eyebrows. Rey is still snorting and snickering. 

“There’s this guy who lives downstairs. Mitaka, you know? He’s been—he’s been trying to ask me out for months! I’m so not interested.” She pauses and erupts into giggles again. “I don’t know what came over me! I told him I’d date him when the world ends, and he had the—” Ben cracks up again, muffling whatever it is that Rey was attempting to say. 

“—I finally slammed his own door in his face! Hopefully he leaves me alone now.” 

Hux pursed his lips. Ben was right, he probably had to be there. But then, a lightbulb clicks on in his brain. A bright one. The most brilliant lightbulb in existence. 

“I actually might be able to help you,” he says, simultaneously attempting to maintain and avoid eye contact with Rey. The result was about ten seconds of horrendous, embarrassing darting glances. 

But it catches their attention. Ben stands up, frowns. Rey does the same. 

“Help me? How?” she says, and that accent of hers. It makes Hux feel so much more idiotic. 

Hux sighs, running a hand over his face. “This was. Never mind. It’s stupid.” 

Rey reaches behind her, bracing her hands against the counter and hopping up to sit. Her legs swing, and Hux finds himself studying her skinny ankles where they peek up out of her beat-up Vans. And to think, before he’d met her he’d thought only old people wore shoes that didn’t lace up. When he looks up, she’s looking at him, and her face is so young, so innocent. Hux feels like the world’s biggest idiot. 

“Whatcha got?” she says. 

“My ma, she won’t. The whole family won’t leave me alone about having a girlfriend. You’ve got that neighbor, I figure we can...help each other out.” Hux cringes as he says the last words. That sounds bad. Much worse than he intended.

And sure enough, Rey’s eyebrows shoot up to her forehead. “You want us to pretend to be dating? To get your family and my neighbor off our backs?” 

“Yeeeeeeees.” he says. “Not forever. Just...until Christmas. Then you can break up with me, make it a messy, brutal affair, and my family will leave me alone out of pity.” 

“And Mitaka?” she says. “How do I know he won’t come back as soon as I fake dump you?” 

“Well, Christmas is a few months away. I’m sure we can think of something.”

Ben suddenly busts up. “This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard.” 

Rey makes a small noise in the back of her throat, tilting her head and studying Hux. Hux tries to calm his breathing and push down the queasy feeling in his gut.

“No, no. Don’t tell me you’re considering this, Rey.” Ben looks back and forth from Rey to Hux. 

“I mean?” she says, looking back at Ben. “It’s...a decent plan. And if Mitaka doesn’t respect the fact that I have a boyfriend, Hux can go punch his lights out—that’ll definitely make us even, right?” With this she tosses her hair and winks— _winks_ at Hux. It makes his insides jump—the queasy feeling resurfacing. 

Ben narrows his eyes and looks at Hux. “Man, I would be taking you down if you weren’t my best friend.” He huffs. “AND, if I didn’t know what an actual pain your family is about that dating thing.” To Rey, he whispers in a comically loud voice, “ _They're big on babies_.” 

It’s awkward and embarrassing. Hux doesn’t know if Rey’s just agreed, or if she’s going to think about it and get back to him…? And he doesn’t want to ask. That would be even more awkward. They sit in awkward silence for a moment.

Luckily Ben solves the problem for him. “So you’re really doing this?” 

Rey nods. “I mean, we’ll have to work out details and a cover story, but yeah! I think I’m in.” 

Hux almost crumples in relief and embarrassment. It’s this moment of weakness that dooms him. 

“So, not to be pushy or anything, but ma wants me to bring you to dinner on Sunday.” 

It was a mistake. He knows that. Too soon. 

“You already TOLD HER?” she says. 

“It was an accident?” 

Ben rolls his eyes. 

————————————————————

When Rey can stand to look at him again, they talk details. Things that a girlfriend should know about his family. Things he should know about his girlfriend. 

He learns some surprising things. 

Rey is an orphan? She doesn’t have a family. They left her at an orphanage when she was young, and she aged out before anyone adopted her. Ben met her in college, and they were quickly inseparable. She’s never dated anyone before (Hux didn’t ask that, actually. She offered it) and she’s never been kissed before. 

Ben interjects here, sternly, with a “I don’t care what your family says, Hux, you won’t kiss her in front of them. That’s absolutely too much to ask of her.” 

Hux furrows his brow. “How old are you?” he asks, and Ben lets out a strangled noise. 

“You don’t even know how old she is and you told your mom you’re dating her?!” 

“I’m 24.” Rey says. “It’s only 6 years difference between us. Totally believable.” 

“I—yeah. No kissing. I wasn’t. Anyway.” Hux’s trying really hard to dial down the creepy factor here. Ben is absolutely not helping. The nerves are making him ramble. It’s awful and humiliating. “How do you feel about holding my hand and…” Hux trails off. “You know what? This is too much. There’s no way we can pull this off.”

Rey laughs. “Of course we can! Don’t be a quitter, Hux. It’ll be suspicious if we don’t hold hands and stuff, so feel free to do that. Make it believable or whatever.” 

Ben rolls his eyes. “It will be immediately obvious to everybody in the room that you guys have never spent more than five seconds together. Hux, you’re so stiff.” 

Hux glares at Ben. “Why are you even here?” 

“To make sure you’re not just trying to scam my best friend!” 

Rey takes severe offence to this, clearly. “I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself!” 

She punches Ben in the arm, and he concedes. 

Her favorite color is green, her favorite music is (this she announces with a sheepish, guilty grin) ABBA, and she takes her tea with sugar and no milk. It feels painfully like a get-to-know-you game you’d play at a company team-building exercise. Hux prefers to avoid those. Getting to know people is not one of his hobbies. 

When Rey is finished, she demands he share his information. 

Now generally, he doesn’t care to share many things about him. He’s lived with Ben for a few years and Ben doesn’t even know how he takes his coffee. It’s just his experience? People don’t care to listen, so it’s generally less humiliating to just...not bother sharing. But her face? She’s rapt. Intent. Sincere. These are traits Hux hasn’t encountered very often. He has to give her something. 

“I take my coffee black.” 

Rey frowns and shrugs. “That’s it?” 

Ben rolls his eyes. “This is never going to work.” 

“Hux, what’s your favorite color?” Rey asks. “That might be a good place to start.” 

“Favorite color? That’s such a dumb concept. I don’t have one.” 

“Huh.” Rey says. “That was actually…pretty informative. Listen, we can cover those things a little later. Gradually. Like normal people.” 

Ben rubs a hand over his face, turning and reaching into the cupboard for a cup. “At least his family won’t be surprised that you don’t know anything about him, you know, since he’s such an infuriatingly private nerd.” 

Hux glares at him as Rey giggles. 

“You’re so juvenile, Ben.” he says. Ben just shrugs. Rey is still giggling, one hand clamped over her mouth. “Are you busy on Sunday, Rey?” he says, pursing his lips as she quiets her laughter. 

“It just so happens that I’m not. What time?” 

“Dinner is at 5 o’clock. We won't go to church this time.” 

“Am I allowed to come, too?” Ben says. 

“Absolutely not!” 

Rey scoffs. “Why not?!” 

“For one, my parents don’t like Ben very much, never have. And he’ll spend the entire time trying to poke holes in our story!” Hux is sure. He knows Ben pretty well, he remembers that time he made the mistake of accepting his offer for a double date. 

…that one is a long story that involves a great deal of melted cheese and the kind of memories that still make Hux randomly cringe. He’s still wary of any sort of ‘help’ Ben says he’s willing to give. 

It’s a silent moment before Rey speaks, nodding reluctantly. “That’s probably true, sorry Ben. Next time? I mean, there are a lot of these things we’ll be expected to go to, right?” 

Hux sighs heavily. “Yes. To make it believable, we’ll have to spend a fair amount of time around everyone. They’ve got to like you.” 

Ben scoffs. “Good luck with that one, Rey, no offense. It’s probably been 90 years since Brendol Hux actually _liked_ anything.” 

She looks alarmed and Hux reaches over to swat the back of Ben’s head. “Would you stop, you idiot?” 

There’s a moment of silent combat between Hux and Ben. Hux shakes his head and frowns, very sternly. Ben, for his part can only widen his eyes and smirk, stealing glances towards Rey. Hux, very careful to maintain the stern exterior he’s cultivated, rolls his eyes internally. Ben is going to make this plan fail before it even gets off the ground. If Rey is too terrified to behave normally, they’ll never believe it. If they don’t believe it...well, Hux can’t stand anymore family holidays where half of the dinner conversation centers around whether or not he’s going to die a virgin (there’s actually no danger of that at all, thank you very much). It’s really better if Rey doesn’t know too much about his family dynamics. 

Rey clears her throat. “Okay, well, if you’ve quite finished your pissing contest over there, I’m hungry. Are we going to get food? Also, should I or should I not be afraid of your father, Hux?” 

Hux shoots a last, severe warning glare towards Ben. “No, he’s rather cold, but nothing too fearsome.”

“Ah, so like his son.” Rey says, and then she winks, again. 

Hux rolls his eyes and tries to contain the stupid flush that’s threatening to cover his face (he’s praying Ben decides to say nothing). There’s sweat beading under the glasses on the bridge of his nose. He’s really trying not to be creepy and she’s making it so difficult. 

“So, I’m gonna go find the chinese takeout menu—sound good?” says Ben. 

“Yes!” Hux and Rey say at the same time. Rey sounds eager, Hux exasperated. 

While Ben orders, Rey turns to Hux and eyes him again, an alarmingly curious expression on her face. “I’ve just realized,” she says, her eyes fixed on him, “that I don’t even know your first name.” 

“Ah.” Hux says, looking at the ceiling. 

“So, what is it?”

“Oh, I don’t—”

“Hux. I _need_ to know your first name. If you’d prefer I didn’t use it, that’s fine. But I should know it.”

“Armitage.”

“That’s. Is it a family name?” 

“No.” 

There is awkward silence, and Hux realizes he should probably share a little more. 

“My younger brother. He’s named for my father. My mother named me.”

Rey frowns. Hux sighs. Ben returns, the food successfully ordered (Hux presumes). 

“So I was thinking. How did you guys meet? What made you start dating? Forgetting to set those details up is pretty amateur, don’t you think?”

“Keeping it as close to the truth as we can is probably for the best. We met through Ben.” Hux says, and Rey nods in agreement. 

“Would your family believe that I asked you out?” Rey asks, turning to Hux. 

Ben laughs, a short barking sound. “You’re genius, Rey! They probably won’t believe it any other way!”

Hux scowls. “Remind me why we’re friends, again?” 

“Because you don’t know how to have fun, and I do?” 

Hux scoffs and Rey giggles. 

The food arrives and for a while, there’s only the noises of plastic containers being passed around and then chewing. 

Hux never uses a fork with chinese take-out. He taught himself how to use chopsticks, and that’s how he does it. Ben rolls his eyes, but doesn’t say anything.

Ben barely even uses a fork. 

Rey, surprisingly, leans over Hux at the beginning of the meal and snatches a pair of chopsticks out of the bag. He expects her to make a mess of it, but she’s surprisingly neat. When he raises his eyebrows at the way she’s shoveling food into her mouth faster than should be physically possible with chopsticks, she just shrugs. 

He imagines she’d like to say something, but her mouth is too full.

When they finish, they continue to sit in a rather companionable silence. It’s all too easy for Hux to follow them into the living room when Ben suggests a movie, to sit beside Rey when she pats the couch, to allow himself to feel…well, never mind. Perhaps he won’t always hide in his room from here on out. 

It might be useful, he thinks, to build a sort of camaraderie with these two. His parents will expect that. It’s not as if they’ll be looking for excuses to poke holes in his relationship, but if there’s anything amiss—Brendol Hux, Sr. will certainly be vigilant in that case. 

He gets tired about halfway through the movie. Rey has fallen asleep, her head on Ben’s chest (though it’s quickly sliding towards his lap), her feet tucked under the edge of Hux’s thigh. He reasons that he can’t move until the movie is over. If he did, he might wake Rey. And if he falls asleep, Ben will be alone, and wouldn’t that be awkward for him? 

Before he finishes the thought, Ben falls asleep, head tipping back onto the edge of the couch, soft, wheezing snores trailing out of the edge of his opened mouth. Well now. Hux can’t leave them alone now. Somebody’s got to turn the tv off after the movie finishes. So he sits in silence, alternating between watching the movie and watching Rey and Ben sleep. There’s something in him that almost feels wistful? Watching the way they’re curled together, Ben’s arm around Rey’s shoulder, her head resting against his thigh, arms tucked under his leg. 

When the movie ends, he turns the tv off, and goes to bed, leaving them in the darkened living room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you, August! You are a never-ending fount of brilliant ideas. And you know fake dating is my kryptonite.
> 
> I'm estimating about 10 chapters? Nothing crazy, not too dramatic. I've had my fill of that. I figure everybody could use a dose of sweet and awkward and funny.


	2. Chapter 2

“Are you sure she’s coming?” Hux says, pacing. Looking at his watch. Adjusting his glasses. Smoothing the fabric of his tie. Unbuttoning and re-buttoning his suit jacket. “And she knows that she’s supposed to wear a dress, right?” 

Ben shakes his head, not looking up from his computer. “Dude. She knows, and she’s coming. Chill. She just called me.” 

Hux huffed. Turned to make another pass through the kitchen, his fancy leather shoes squeaking against the tile. 

“I should—” 

“No.” Ben doesn’t even look up. 

“Are you—”

“Yes.” 

Hux frowns, pulling a chair out from the table and sitting across from Ben. He pulls out his phone.

“Dude. Don’t call her.” Ben says, and when Hux looks up, Ben is glaring at him from over the top of the computer. 

“I wasn’t,” Hux says. “I don’t even have her phone number. I’m just checking the time.” 

Ben eyes him for a moment longer before looking back to his computer. 

Hux has three text messages from his mother, in varying degrees of thinly veiled concern. 

_3:30 PM: Armitage, are you still coming tonight? You haven’t confirmed._

_3:45 PM: Armitage. I don’t know how many steaks to prepare for your father._

_4:00 PM: I’m going to call you if you don’t answer._

He sighs and texts back a reply. Phone calls are the worst. 

_4:15 PM: Calm down, ma. We’re coming._

He can almost feel her sigh of relief, the text under the bubble shifting to “ _read_.” 

The front door opens, and Rey bursts in, panting softly. Hux stands, unsure of whether or not he should go to her. 

He doesn’t get that far, though. He’s stuck staring, rather rudely, if he had to guess, at what she’s wearing. 

It’s vintage, he can tell. And not the kind of vintage that girls buy at boutiques, the fake kind. This is either from a thrift store or a family hand-down. It’s white with pale blue designs all over it, long-petaled flowers inside little circles. There’s a collar. A _collar_ , Hux thinks. At least it looks pressed. She’s pulled her hair up on top of her head in a neat little bun with a bow, and it exposes the long line of her neck, tanned skin trailing down and disappearing behind the buttons of the top of the dress. 

Oh, she’s going to need to do up at least one more of those buttons, he thinks. His father will have a conniption if she shows up with that much of her collarbones showing. 

She’s wearing makeup, he realizes, on his second look-over. It’s light, but her lips are a pretty pink color, and her eyes are lined, and the whole effect is...well, it’s rather pleasing. Different, definitely not in line with the image of the perfectly coiffed debutante his parents will be expecting him to bring home, but the difference is refreshing.

Hopefully his parents think so. 

Rey is fidgeting, her mouth open slightly. Clearly she was going to say something before he started staring. 

Ben closes his computer and rolls his eyes when Hux starts and looks over at him.

“Rey, you look lovely. Hux, tell her she looks lovely.” 

Hux nods, composing himself. “You look lovely, Rey. I apologize.” 

She flushes and smoothes the flats of her hand down the skirt of her dress. It reaches down below her knee, Hux notes with a fierce moment of approval. 

Then he sees her shoes and feels like burying his face in his hands. 

“Um, Rey?” 

She freezes and looks up. “Yes?” 

“Are those? Are you planning on changing into your shoes when we arrive?” 

She frowns and looks down at her feet. She’s wearing a pair of dainty little sneakers, obviously loved and worn but well taken care of. “No? Why? Are these....not okay?” 

Ben hisses. “They’re fine, Rey.” 

Hux closes his eyes. Making her nervous will be worse than letting her wear the shoes. 

“Yes, Rey, they’re—they’re fine. I just wondered.” 

She looks disconcerted, still. 

“I promise—you’re fine. My mother has been doing nothing but pester me all afternoon to make sure we’ll be on time, so we need to leave.” 

Ben stands, moving towards Rey. He leans down over her, whispering in her ear, his hand resting on her shoulder, reassuringly. Hux feels like—feels like he needs to look away. This closeness, this intimacy is not something he should be seeing. 

He straightens, and Rey looks calmer. Should he hold out his arm? Walk her to the car? 

No, he decides that would be silly. 

He gestures to the door instead, opening it and following her through. Before he can close the door, Ben’s large hand closes over his wrist. 

“Hey—” he says. “She’s nervous. She knows your parents are...rich. She doesn’t come from that sort of life, man.” 

Hux nods, suddenly understanding. “I see. I’ll make sure she feels perfectly at ease.” 

Ben snorts. “I wouldn’t make promises you can’t keep, but just keep the criticism down to a minimum, okay? She never dresses up. She really wants to help you.” 

Again, Hux can only nod. Ben looks him in the eye for a second before nodding his head sharply and releasing his wrist. Hux closes the door and turns to see Rey waiting by the door of the car. 

Should he go and open the door? Hux doesn’t know what the protocol is for a fake date. He’s been on a few real dates, and it’s customary to do that sort of thing, he knows. 

In the interest of preparing to be in the right mindset, he walks to her side of the car first, unlocking and opening her door. 

“Thank you,” she murmurs, sliding into the seat, her bare legs sticking to the leather a little. Hux tries not to look as he mumbles a reply. She’s so young. This is a bad idea.

The drive is short, painless, vaguely scenic. Rey spends the whole drive silently looking out the window. He can hear her soft gasp as they pull up to the gate, which swings open automatically as his car approaches. 

He knows that the house (if you could be so humble as to call it just a house) strikes an intimidating figure upon first glance. And second. And third. Okay, so it’s ornate and big and ridiculous. He knows this. He grew up here. 

The stone front is gray, faded from age, and covered in climbing ivy, like something out of a fairytale book. The front entrance is a double door, the walk leading up to it paved in cobblestones, well worn from many, many years of usage. Hux remembers being a little boy and looking out the window of the second floor as ladies and gentlemen in dazzling finery arrived and walked up these very steps to attend one of the many company parties Cynthia and Brendol Hux, Sr., had hosted in their prime. 

Nowadays it’s only him and his brother who walk these steps, when his brother actually deigns to come home. He lives far away, with a family. A wife, two children. The pictures look pretty good, but Hux hasn’t ever visited, so he wouldn’t know, really. They come once a year for Christmas and that’s it, and that’s saying something, because Brendol Hux, Jr., has always been daddy’s favorite. 

Hux shakes the heavy weight of memories off of his shoulders and comes around to open Rey’s door. She’s already out of the car, slamming the door shut and rubbing her hands over her arms nervously. 

He’d like to touch her reassuringly, maybe a hand on her shoulder like Ben did earlier? His arm around her waist? Simply a palm in hers? But Hux remembers Ben’s stern voice shouting at him “No kissing!” And he abandons the thought. 

Rey is certainly a grown-up girl, capable of comforting herself. 

They walk up the cobblestone steps, Hux not bothering to ring the doorbell, instead swinging the handle (he knows it will be unlocked, his parents are a fair bit overconfident in that regard), and pushing the heavy door open. 

The entryway is quiet, clean, but brightly lit. He continues down the hall to where he knows the dining room waits, pausing to peer into the kitchen across the hall. No one is there. Cursing internally, he checks his watch. 4:55 PM. He’s not late. They’re not late. 

He doesn’t have to open the dining room door; it’s been propped open to allow his mother easy access as she carries the food through. Rey follows behind him, close enough that he can feel the heat of her breath on the back of his neck, and it sends chills down his spine despite its warmth. 

In the middle of the room rests a long, wooden table. It’s always been too big for the Hux family, really. Two children and two parents doesn’t call for 12+ seating capacity, but Hux knows it was never meant for that at all. Once again, memories of dinner parties swirl in the front of his mind, but he pushes them away and instead, focuses on pushing the chair in for Rey. His mother and father are watching closely. 

The table is set for four at the far end of the room, candles in the middle, placemats in front of each chair, a ridiculous array of silverware on either side of the plates. Rey’s intake of breath is almost silent. Almost. Hux almost wants to reach out and squeeze her hand under the table, but he doesn’t. 

“You’re almost late, Armitage.” his father says, but he’s not looking at Hux. 

He’s eyeing Rey. Studying the knot on top of her head, the curves of her eyebrows, the line of her jaw, the opening of her collar—which Hux forgot to tell her to button a little higher, of course. 

To her credit, Rey doesn’t quail, she just sits calmly, staring back. 

“Almost is not late, you know.” Hux says, smoothly. It’s not hard to maintain his cool, collected demeanor in the presence of his father. He’s had a lifetime of experience doing it. 

Brendol Hux, Sr., scoffs. “If you’re on time, you’re late.” 

Hux sighs. “Yes, yes, I know.” 

His mother smiles and rests her hand on Hux’s wrist. 

“Armitage. Will you introduce us?” 

She gestures with a slight incline of her head, towards the spot where Rey sits. 

“Ma, this is Rey. Rey, my mother, Cynthia, my father, Brendol.” He gestures to each, respectively. 

Rey smiles, a brilliant, dazzling thing he didn’t know she had in her. 

“It’s such a pleasure to finally meet you.” She says, and Hux has to fight back the grin. Her tone is perfectly moderated, like she’s been practicing the air of “bored and rich” her entire life. 

“I’m sure the pleasure is all ours,” says Brendol Hux, Sr., “Though we didn’t know you and Armitage were seeing each other until just recently, of course.” 

Rey looks down into her lap, a delicate flush alighting across her cheekbones. “Well, he is such a private man, you know.” At this she flicks her gaze up to Brendol, who is not unaffected. The slight drawl of her British accent combined with her eyes, round and doe-like, is a striking combination. Hux is so proud.

Cynthia smiles, a little broader. “We do know.” 

Hux rolls his eyes, the glare of the chandelier above reflecting through his glasses. 

A moment of awkward silence falls over the table and Cynthia tries to alleviate it by rising, ever gracefully, and announcing that dinner must be ready. 

Rey insists on helping her carry it in. 

She sets the plate down in front of Hux, and he can’t stop himself from letting his forefinger brush over her wrist, a silent thanks, approval. She straightens quickly, and Hux cringes. 

There’s Ben’s voice in his head again. _“No kissing!”_

“The steak is delicious, Mr. Hux.” Rey says, between bites. Much like Hux had guessed, her skill with the chopsticks had lent itself to this situation as well, and she didn’t once look to him to see which fork she was supposed to use. 

The dinner is going well, she’s answering all of his parents’ questions just fine, eating with grace and poise. Hux is finding it easier and easier to relax into the conversation. 

_Yes, ma, she really asked me out. Yes, Ben will be sure to make it next time. No, I haven’t told her that story about Aunt Ruby._

But he notices that his father is being strangely quiet, eating and watching. Is he suspicious? 

Out of the corner of his eye, Hux watches his father set down his knife and fork and pick up his wine glass, his eyes never leaving Rey as she continues to listen as Hux’s mother tells her about Aunt Ruby. 

“Where did you say her family is from, Hux?”

And there it is. A question, and one they hadn’t covered in their preparation (how in the world had he forgotten to ask this?). 

Brendol Hux is suspicious. It must have been the moment he’d touched her wrist.

He can feel Rey freeze in the seat next to him, her spine straightening infinitesimally against the high-backed chair. She’s probably too nervous to answer. 

“I didn’t, actually.” Smoothly, without waiting a single beat too long.

“Westminster. In London.” Rey says, covering her mouth with her napkin, blotting away imaginary bits of wine and potato. 

His jaw relaxes. It’s a silent, careful motion. 

“Ah. And what brings you to the States, exactly?” Brendol says, casting a measured, blazing look at Hux. “Armitage seems intent to keep you all to himself.” 

“Her parents died when she was young. She moved to live with her grandfather, here.” 

“Oh, that’s terrible! Our sympathies, of course.” His mother, to her credit, looks genuinely dismayed. 

“It was quite a long time ago. I don’t have many memories of them.” Rey says. Slim fingers twitch towards her fork, but her food is gone, so she reaches for wine glass instead and takes a measured sip. 

After a moment of silence, surely calculated on his part, Brendol Hux clears his throat and speaks. “Did Armitage ever tell you? We’re from just across the way, in Dublin. Although I’m sure if I remember correctly, there’s family from London on Cynthia’s side.” 

Cynthia nods. Rey smiles. “I’ve always wanted to visit Dublin, but I’ve never had the chance.” 

“Perhaps Armitage can take you someday,” Cynthia says, and Hux cringes. 

“Perhaps.” Rey says evenly, looking over at him and smiling. It’s sweet. Too sweet. Good heavens, she’s so young. 

They’ve passed Brendol’s initial test, but it’s not over. Over dessert he puts down his fork, looking suddenly thoughtful. 

Hux isn’t fooled. 

“Armitage, did you say that you met Rey through Ben?” Brendol says, and the mocking seriousness on his face makes Hux clench his fists under the table.

“I did.” 

“Ben lives with you—would you say that Rey is over quite a lot?” 

Rey frowns, a small crease in between her eyebrows. _Oh good_ , Hux thinks. She can’t see where this is going. 

“I spend most of my free time with Ben and Hux, yes.” she says, and Hux is screaming. Silently. 

Brendol’s eyebrows shoot up. Cynthia coughs, a gentle, disgruntled sound. 

“But...you’re being...chaste, yes?” Brendol says.

There’s the tinkling sound of glass breaking. Rey’s snapped her wineglass stem, and the red wine is slowly spilling over the white carpet below. Hux scoffs. White carpet is so pretentious for a dining room. 

“Oh, dear,” Cynthia says, tossing her cloth napkin to Hux, who leans down to start mopping the mess up. 

“I’m—I’m so sorry!” Rey says, and as Hux looks up at her from where he’s kneeling beside her chair, he can see unshed tears in her eyes. He pats her shoe in what he hopes is a reassuring manner and nods once. 

She passes him her napkin and takes a deep breath. 

“Oh, it’s quite alright.” Brendol says. He hasn’t moved, simply watching the whole scene with sharp eyes. “Of course, my question still stands.” 

“That would be none of your concern, Father.” Hux says, standing and moving to drop the wet napkins onto the opposite end of the table. 

“Thank you, Armitage. I’ll have someone come in and clean the spot up later.” Cynthia says, and then to Rey she adds. “It will come right out, not to worry.” 

“The moral standing of my son is always my concern.” Brendol says. 

Hux closes his eyes and nods. “We are.” he says through clenched teeth. 

Rey’s eyes are wide, and though her hands are in her lap, Hux is sure they’re probably shaking. It’s time to leave. 

“Are you finished with your dessert, Rey?” he asks. She nods. “Then we should probably be going. Work in the morning and all that.” 

Cynthia _tuts_ softly. “You’ve always been so responsible, Armitage.” 

As well as he can manage through a tight jaw, he smiles at his mother. 

He extends a hand to Rey, thoughtlessly. He just wants to help her from her chair, get her out of this room, this house, back into the car. 

She looks at it for a moment, reaching up slowly, hesitantly before taking it. It’s then that Hux remembers that he should not be doing this. 

Her hand is so warm, and smooth against his. He relaxes his hand as she stands, intent on dropping it and allowing her to follow him out of the room, but she doesn’t let go of his hand, sliding her palm against his so that they’re holding hands properly. 

He doesn’t let it show, just how uncomfortable he is. 

They bid his parents a good night and walk out of the dining room. His mother trails behind them, but all he can think about is her hand against his. However, once the front door shuts, she lets go and they walk to the car in silence. He opens her car door, out of habit, and then goes around to his side. 

The drive home is awkward. 

“I—I’m so sorry.” Hux says. “I should have known. I should have prepared you.” 

Rey laughs, but it’s high and false. “It’s fine, Hux. At least we know we’ve weathered the most awkward situation possible! Everything from here is smooth sailing.” 

Hux’s eyebrows shoot to his forehead. He hopes she’s right. 

But she hasn’t met his whole family. The cousins, the aunts and uncles. Well-meaning but entirely too nosy and pushy for his taste. 

“I—I would certainly hope so.”

She shoots him a curious look. They don’t speak for the rest of the car ride.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Listen I've spent some time in England, around Cambridge and London, but I've only been to Dublin once, and I was sort of deliriously sick, so join me in a fun game of "how much about this city can I remember so that my fiction stays scientifically accurate" in the coming chapters of this fic. Also NaNoWriMo rules say you can't edit and I'm breaking the rules a little but please be kind and let me know if there's anything weird going on.
> 
> Also [here is Rey's dress.](http://smg.photobucket.com/user/missmaggiethecat/media/website%208/103_4846.jpg.html) For anyone who likes that sort of thing.


	3. Chapter 3

Ben greets them at the door. 

“How was it?” 

“I almost ruined their dining room carpet and Hux’s father wants to know if we’re having sex or not!” Rey says, flopping down onto the couch, huffing and blowing stray pieces of hair out of her eyes. She kicks off her sneakers. 

“Wait—what??” Ben says, closing the door behind Hux. 

Hux sighs. Heavily. 

“My father was in...rare form tonight.” He says. 

“So, he was being completely normal.” Ben says. He’s padded back into the kitchen, the soft fabric of his socks making a mildly annoying _swish swish_ noise as he shuffles towards the freezer. He pulls out a carton of ice cream and begins the _swish swish_ back, stopping by the silverware drawer for two—no, his hand hesitates and he grabs three spoons. He plops himself down on the couch and holds one spoon out to Rey, who eagerly accepts it. The other he waves in front of him, using it to summon Hux. 

“I—uh, we already had dessert.” Hux says lamely. 

Rey makes a disgusting noise in the back of her throat, muffled and distorted through the ice cream. 

“You and I both know that this will be much more satisfying than whatever that was.” Ben says, and he tosses the spoon towards Hux, who has no choice but to catch it now. 

“...Fine.” He takes his suit jacket off, laying it carefully over the back of the chair in the corner, then loosens and removes his tie. His shoes come off, just as carefully, and are set neatly near the foot of the chair. Then he moves to sit next to Ben on the couch. “Are we just going to eat from the carton?” 

Rey chuckles and almost chokes. Ben nods, holding the carton out so that Hux can reach it. 

Hux digs his spoon in and takes a bite. 

“So, when do we have to do that again?” Rey asks, grimacing against the chill of the ice cream on the back of her throat. 

“Isn’t it really soon to be thinking about that? Maybe give yourselves like, a couple hours to shake off whatever the heck happened there tonight?” Ben says, stabbing his own spoon in between theirs. 

Hux nods through his small mouthful of ice cream. “I—actually there’s a birthday party for my Aunt Ruby next weekend,” he says. “If you’re up to it.” 

Rey shrugs. “I mean, this is the deal, right? Might as well do it right, you know?” 

Ben laughs. Hux and Rey both scowl at him. 

“I’m sorry,” he chuckles, “I just can’t believe that I’m sitting between two of my friends, talking about their plan to pretend to date each other so they can fake breakup.” 

Rey smiles, reaching up to touch the tip of her finger against Ben’s nose. “Face it, weirdo. We make your life interesting.” 

“I’ve never had anybody stoop so low as to call me interesting, I must confess.” Hux says, and Ben lets out a bark of laughter. This sets Rey off on a giggle fit. 

“I do apologize if I’ve offended you, sir.” she says, grinning. There’s a smudge of chocolate near the corner of her mouth, and Hux swallows, tries to fight the urge to dart his tongue out and lick the same spot near his lower lip. He definitely can’t wipe it off for her, right? Right. That would be. Out of line. Definitely.

Ben interrupts his internal dilemma by reaching up to rub the spot away with his thumb, and Rey shoves his hand away and yells. 

“I can wipe my own face, geez!” 

“Clearly!” Ben says. 

Hux shifts, uncomfortable. Unsure of what to do with the dirty spoon in his hands. Not sure if he’s allowed to get up yet. 

Rey takes a few more bites and then lays back, her bun squashed against the back of the couch awkwardly. Ben closes up the carton, takes their spoons, and then gets back up to take the ice cream to the freezer. While he’s gone, Rey turns her head to look at Hux. He’s sitting up considerably straighter, and the angle gives him a view right down the delicate slope of her nose, to where the cupid’s bow of her lips rests, shiny from the sticky residue of the ice cream. 

“So this birthday party,” she says, and Hux makes an effort to look into her eyes instead at her mouth—her mouth? What was he doing looking at her mouth? This must stop. “Will I need to wear a dress?” 

He frowns, thinking to himself. “I would imagine that my mother will wear a dress. My father will most likely wear a tie. Most of my family believes you can never be overdressed...only underdressed.” 

Rey raises her eyebrows, looking back for a second, watching Ben wash the spoons off and put them into the dishwasher. “I’m going to level with you here, Hux.” she says, and suddenly she’s looking down, her fingers toying with the hem of her dress. The tips of her ears are a little pink. “This is it. This is all I’ve got for dresses.” 

Oh. Oh. Hux understands now. “I’m sure that a pair of jeans and a nice shirt would be perfectly adequate. I can even dress to match so you don’t look out of place.”

Rey smiles at him. It’s not like the other dazzling smiles she gave to his parents, not like the opened-mouth, laughing smiles she gives Ben. This one is tired, she’s tired. He can see it in the lines near her eyes. But the pleasantness of it is so pure. She’s genuinely smiling, still. 

“You have some kindness in you, don’t you?” she says. Hux scrunches his nose. What does he say? He can’t think of anything to say. 

She just smiles again. Her eyes slide closed and she sighs, melting further into the couch. 

When Ben comes back into the living room, she seems to be dozing, at least. 

“It seems like she spends more nights here than she does at her own apartment.” Hux remarks, keeping his voice hushed. 

Slowly, so slowly, Ben reaches a hand out and brushes hair out of her face, fine hairs that are falling and rising and tickling with each breath coming out of her nose. “She doesn’t like to be alone.” he says. 

“I certainly understand why that is.” Hux says. 

Ben stands in front of her for a moment, then reaches down and picks her up, sliding his arm under her legs and wrapping the other high around her waist. The poor girl barely stirs at all. Ben moves to go to his room, but Hux stops him with a hand on his arm. 

“She can...you don’t have to give her your bed.” Hux says. “You’re too small to fit on the couch.” 

“So are you.” Ben murmurs. 

Hux shrugs. 

With a measured look at Hux, Ben continues to carry Rey into his room, and through the opened door, he can see Ben laying her down and covering her with a blanket, pausing to pull the bow out of her hair, smoothing a hand over her forehead, and grabbing a pair of sleep pants off the back of his desk chair. 

“Good night, then.” Hux says. 

At the sound of Hux’s voice, Ben pauses on the way to the bathroom, looking back at Hux. “You’re—somebody’s going to tell me what happened tonight in the morning, right?” 

Hux nods, a small incline of his head.

“Good night.” Ben says. 

———

The birthday party is on Saturday afternoon. The weather is just starting to turn, everything blustery and burning orange and yellow and red. 

Rey shows up to the apartment at the requested time wearing a pair of dark jeans and a light sweater, her hair down, obviously freshly washed and dried. The ends curl softly, just below her shoulders. She’s applied makeup again, the same bit of lining around her eyes, though her lipstick is a different color. Or, at least, Hux thinks it’s a different color? Maybe a little mauve instead of pink.

She looks lovely. Hux doesn’t need Ben to remind him to tell her this time. She flushes again, pushing her hands into her front pockets. 

“You don’t look so bad yourself.” she says, and Hux fights to keep the smile off his face. 

Ben clears his throat and shuffles his feet. “So are we going?” he asks. 

Hux rolls his eyes. At least they know Ben can’t make anything worse—the worst has already happened. 

But still. Having Ben there while he tried to navigate fake-boyfriend territory with Rey would be...well, a little unnerving. This was a situation in which he’d definitely be required to hold her hand. Yes? They probably need to address this. 

Rey hasn’t closed the door yet, so Hux just gestures through it again, and they all pile into Hux’s car. 

Rey calls shotgun. “They’ll get suspicious if Hux is making his girlfriend ride in the backseat of the car!” 

Ben concedes with a grumble. 

But he makes himself a nuisance by sitting in the middle seat and leaning his head through the gaps between Rey and Hux’s armrests. 

“So you know your Aunt Ruby is gonna flip, right?” 

It feels like 90% of Hux’s life is sighing heavily these days. 

“I know.” 

“Why will Aunt Ruby flip?” Rey asks, twisting in her seat to look first at Ben and then at Hux. 

“She’s pretty much been telling everyone Hux will die unmarried since he was 16 years old.” 

Rey’s face twists. “What? That’s so mean!” she says. 

“You should hear what his cousins say!” Ben says, and Hux doesn’t have to be looking at him to see the wicked grin on his face. 

“Ben. Just—don’t.” 

There’s silence. Hux can see Ben’s face in the rearview mirror, and he’s still got that wicked grin. 

“Don’t what?” Rey says.

“His cousins like to lament over the fact that Hux will surely die an unkissed virgin. But in private, of course. The parents wouldn’t approve of such talk.” 

Hux’s face burns. Rey has covered her mouth with her hand. 

“Well, I certainly understand what’s at stake now.” she says. 

Ben leans back, stretching his feet. Hux can feel his heels digging into the base of his seat, huge and rather unpleasant. 

“You’ll have to hold hands here.” he says. “Touch shoulders, Hux, your arm around her while you’re standing or sitting.”

Hux scowls and grumbles. He can’t look at Rey. He can’t. This is so embarrassing. 

“Hey Ben, I have a great idea.” Rey says. “Why don’t _you_ pretend to be his fake date, since you’d obviously do a way better job than I could.” 

There’s a sarcastic, whining noise from Ben, but he doesn’t say anything else. 

The rest of the drive passes pretty quickly. 

Then they’re in the driveway again, the cobblestones, the ivy, the french doors, the twenty seven windows. Hux moves around to open Rey’s door, and she lets him. From behind him, he can hear Ben grumbling on under his breath, “Nobody’s opened _my_ door.”

About halfway to the door, another car pulls into the driveway. There’s a squeal, and his Aunt Ruby pops out of her car, Uncle Scott in tow. 

“Armitage!” She says, the drawl of her accent over his name making him cringe internally. “You’ve brought that charming young man—Ben, is it?” Ben nods, smiling widely, endearingly. She looks then at Rey. “And is this your girlfriend, Ben?” Aunt Ruby says. 

Ben chuckles.

“No, actually,” Rey says, stepping forward and pulling her hands out of her pockets. “I’m Hux’s date. Rey.” 

This gets an eyebrow raise from Aunt Ruby, her face coloring a ruddy red in excitement. She sweeps her bangs back from her face and then claps her hands together. “How wonderful, Armitage! You certainly didn’t tell any of us you’d met someone!” 

Rey, Ben and Hux all look at each other with raised eyebrows. In the end, Rey takes the two steps towards Hux and slips her hand in his. “Let’s go inside, shall we?” she says. 

“Oh, isn’t she charming?” Aunt Ruby says, trailing behind them. 

It’s a whirlwind of family members inside. Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents. They’re all “eager to meet Hux’s date!” and since Ruby is behind them, they get caught up in several rather awkward conversations. Ben is a good buffer, though, surprisingly. 

From behind, Hux hears a raucous laugh, and then there’s a large hand clapping him on the shoulder, pulling him around. Ben is currently occupied with one of Hux’s uncles. And he doesn’t even have Rey’s hand for some sort of comfort. Not that it would provide comfort anyway. Hux shakes the thought away, quelling his rising irritation.

“Armie!” his cousin booms, “Did I hear it right? Did you bring a girlfriend with you?” 

Rey steps up, presenting her hand. “I’m Rey, it’s nice to meet you.” The smile on her face is dazzling, and he notes with no small amount of satisfaction that Robbie is falling for it, hook, line, and sinker. 

“I’m Robbie,” he says, bringing his hand up to shake Rey’s. “What brings you to slum it with this uptight nerd?” 

Hux swears, violently, in his head. What is with all of these people? Is there an annual summit? He is not a nerd. 

“Well, he’s got a steady-paying job and his shower is pretty nice.” Rey says. 

Robbie’s eyes widen and he hoots. Hux cannot eyeroll any harder than he already is. “I’m not sure what you’re offering her, Armie, but you need to keep doing it.” 

Rey smiles, and it’s all fake sheepishness and pink cheeks. 

Robbie leans in to Rey, and Hux is disgusted by how inappropriately close he is to her. Before he can stop himself, he’s reaching out to grab her hand back. 

“He’s kissed you, right?” Robbie says in a whisper. Hux makes a disgusted noise in the back of his throat. Robbie’s not even looking Rey in the eyes—his gaze is rather unabashedly focused on her mouth. 

Ben spins around, leaving his conversation with Hux’s uncle immediately. Luckily he stops himself from intervening, instead shooting Hux a withering glare that leaves no room for interpretation. You will fix this, it says. Ben Solo has never had any room for messing around where Rey is concerned. 

Hux steps in front of Rey, separating her and Robbie, and looks into his face. He doesn’t speak. He can’t think of anything to say that wouldn’t sound murderous and overly intense. 

In the end he settles for “I think you need to walk away, Robbie.” to which Robbie, predictably, responds with a laugh. 

Ben growls, and Rey says nothing, staying behind Hux. 

“Ohhh, typical Armie!” Robbie taunts. “Always hiding behind someone else. Are your little friends gonna fight your battles for you? Besides. What’s the problem? You _have_ kissed her, right?” 

Hux clenches his teeth against the snarl in the back of his throat. 

But then Rey is shoving against his arms and pushing him back behind her. “Of course he has.” she says. Robbie grins, baring his teeth. It’s predatory and menacing and Hux just wants to tuck Rey back behind him. 

“But don’t you think that’s sort of a gross question to be asking your cousin’s girlfriend? A little….odd? Why do you care who he’s kissed?” Rey raises her eyebrows, Hux can see the movement of them from where he’s standing, and he wishes he were beside her so that he could appreciate what he expects is a disapproving look to rival his father’s best. 

Robbie opens his mouth and flushes, then closes it and nods once, awkwardly, before walking away. 

When Rey turns around her smile is smug and Ben is clapping her on the back, whooping a little too loudly. Hux catches his father’s eye from across the room, and Brendol’s gaze is like ice. 

There’s cake, of course. It’s not a Hux Birthday party unless his mother’s cooked up some ridiculously ornate birthday cake for the occasion. Throughout the years, this home has been established as a place of gathering for the family, despite Brendol Hux, Sr.’s rather general attitude of distaste regarding the matter. 

The candles are lit. Everyone in the room sings together, Hux leaning in a little when he catches the sound of Rey’s singing voice—it’s…lovely. Soft, but sweet. 

His mother makes her way towards them once the cake is served, and she wraps her arms around Hux’s shoulders in a loose hug, brushing her mouth over his cheek. She smiles and hugs Ben as well, looking at Rey with the same soft smile before hugging her and kissing her cheek.

“It’s so lovely to have all three of you here for the party. Did you meet Aunt Ruby?” she says, turning towards Rey. 

“I did, yes. She’s lovely!” Rey says, and Hux marvels, not for the first time, at her ability to make her smile look so genuine. It reaches all the way into her eyes and makes her face glow, her cheeks pink. 

“Now, next week is Thanksgiving, so...you’re all coming then, yes?” Cynthia says, grasping one of Rey’s hands and one of Ben’s. “Armitage, you have no choice, you’re obligated to come—I did not endure 23 hours of—” 

“Yes, ma, I know, I’ll be there!” Hux says, rubbing a hand over his eyes. 

Ben clears his throat with what sounds like a little bit of a suppressed laugh before speaking. “Actually, my uncle’s going to be in town, so we’re all heading to my parents’ for Thanksgiving.” 

Cynthia droops dramatically. “Oh, Ben. Sometimes I forget you’re not actually family! Make sure you tell your mother hello for me.” 

Ben smiles. “I’ll be sure to tell her it’s just from you.” He finishes the sentence with a wink towards Cynthia, who rolls her eyes. 

“Brendol can be a stubborn one, sometimes.” she says, turning to Rey. “We’ll have you with us, though, won’t we?” 

Rey nods and smiles again. “I wouldn’t miss it, even if Hux did!” she says, shaking her head. The movement makes her hair swish back and forth around her face in silky waves. 

Cynthia smiles and grasps Rey’s hands. “We’d welcome you, even if Armitage decided not to come.” 

Hux huffs. This is one part of real (and fake, to be honest) dating he could do without—the joking at his expense. Ben pats his shoulder with a large hand, an attempt at comfort, Hux knows. It’s sort of ruined by the poorly disguised smirk on his face. 

“I’ve got to go and make sure your father is doing alright. Come say goodbye to us before you leave, will you?” she says. 

“Ah, we were probably going to head home soon,” Hux says. 

“Oh! Well come give your father a hug, then.” 

Ugh. This is why Hux had hoped to sneak out in the commotion. 

His father is, as expected, quite stony, and looks quite unwilling to accept a hug. Hux does not attempt it. “Armitage. Ben. Rey. I’m pleased you could make it.” 

“Thank you for having us.” Rey says, and Hux rolls his eyes as Brendol smiles, smiles at her. 

“Will we see you next week?” he says, and though there are three of them standing there, Hux knows he’s not asking all of them. 

“Yes, and I’m looking forward to it!” Rey says. “I hear you cook the best turkey around!” 

Brendol Hux, Sr., actually blushes. “I suppose you’ll have to be the judge of that.” he says. 

Rey nods. Hux puts a hand on her arm, curling his fingers around the loose fabric at the inside of her elbow, guiding her away. “Goodbye, Father.” he says, and then begins walking away. 

He’s—he’s not jealous, per se. The point of this was for Rey to get in good with his family, wasn’t it? He just hadn’t expected it to happen quite so...quickly. 

Well, all the better. Surely the more they liked her the more time they’d give him once they staged their break-up. 

Rey attempts to make conversation on the way home but Hux isn’t feeling terribly social. Two family outings in two weeks is more forced interaction than he’s used to. It seems funny that having a girlfriend, albeit a fake one, is somehow just stressful, if not more so, than being single at every family gathering. 

When they get home, he goes into his room and closes the door but doesn’t latch it. He stands in front of his closet, away from the door and pulls off his sweater, hanging it up on the specified hook before unbuttoning the shirt beneath. Through the opened crack in his door, he can hear Rey and Ben murmuring to each other. 

“....did I do something wrong?” he hears Rey ask.

The first part of Ben’s reply is an inaudible rumble thanks to the low, deep tone of his voice. “...he just has a lot of tense history with his father.” 

There’s silence, and Hux uses the moment as an opportunity to walk closer to the door, hoping he’ll be able to hear better.

“Tense?” Rey asks. 

Someone, Hux assumes it’s Ben, given the amount of noise it makes, shifts on the couch. “I’m sorry Rey, I don’t...that’s not my place to elaborate, really.” 

More silence. Hux’s fingers clutch a little tighter on the opened edges of his shirt. He doesn’t need their pity, and he doesn’t need Rey in his business, feeling sorry for him. 

“If I’m doing something wrong…” and Rey sighs here, “I’d just like to know.” 

“No,” Ben says, and it’s almost a whisper, almost too quiet for Hux to hear. “No, you’re doing wonderfully. Family things are just...hard for him.” Ben chuckles, quietly. “That’s why you’re doing this, you know. To make it easier.” 

Rey huffs, and it might be the ghost of a laugh, depending on her facial expression. 

Hux moves away. He doesn’t want to hear her reply. It seems strange to him, that he’s trusting an acquaintance, really, with this. As much as he tries to pretend he can do this and keep her at an arm’s length, he knows she’ll be in over her head if he deludes himself like that. 

He hangs up the shirt, he’d only worn it for a few hours, it’s still clean, as far as he’s concerned. His pants are hung up next to the rest of his jeans, and he pulls on a pair of sweatpants and a plain white t-shirt. 

When he finally reemerges from his room, Rey and Ben have changed as well and are sitting together watching NCIS. Clearly he’d missed the usual spat about which episode they’d stopped on last (like Netflix didn’t have a function specifically designed to solve arguments like that). 

He settles himself in a chair adjacent to the couch, tucking his feet up under him and looking towards the tv. He has no interest in the show, really. After a moment, he gets up and goes back to his room, reemerging with a book to read while they watch, and settling back into the chair. 

“Hux,” Ben says, and he barely looks up from the screen as he gestures. “Come sit by Rey. You guys need to practice being near each other so you don’t look so….” the sentence trails off as something particularly intense happens onscreen. 

Hux raises his eyebrows. “So…?” 

“Stiff.” 

He rolls his eyes and looks at Rey, who glances towards him with an indecipherable expression on her face. After a measured moment, she pats the space next to her. 

He sits, gingerly, and opens his book to read. Ben looks over and laughs. “That looks really cozy, Hux. Are you in kindergarten again?”

Hux shoots a nasty look towards Ben. “I’m sure I don’t know what you mean.” 

“Yeah, well, I promise Rey doesn’t have cooties. You can sit a little closer.” 

Ever gracious, Rey even moves her feet out of the way for him, and he shuffles himself sideways until his left arm is pressed up against Rey’s right arm, her feet touching the side of his thigh.   
“Is that—it doesn’t actually look very comfortable.” Rey says. With an epic eye roll, she wraps her hand around his arm and hauls him up—and he’s too startled to resist—so that he’s forced to wrap his arm around her neck and her feet are now resting in his lap. He casts a wary glance towards Ben, who is focused on the tv. 

Once he stops moving, Rey moves her attention back to the tv and Hux opens his book, holding it open with his thumb on the spine. He does his best to focus on the text; it’s a very interesting novel, a thriller he’d never read before. But this close to Rey? He can hear her heart beat. He can feel every time she giggles, every time she gasps. When he brings the book up to his hand so that he can turn a page, he can feel her breath on his fingers. 

It’s distracting and more than a little uncomfortable. Having her this close is maddening—he feels like he might be enjoying it but that’s...that’s the problem. He’s got Ben’s voice in his head still, sternly insisting “no kissing!” and it’s enough to keep him on edge, to keep his spine from relaxing into the back of the couch. The back of her neck where his arm is resting is warm and damp, sliding and sticking a little every time he shifts to turn a page, and the smell of her is pressed into his nose almost forcefully, magnified by her loose hair. 

It’s this uncomfortable, hyper-awareness that lets him know that she’s falling asleep. Her head starts drooping, the loose hairs tickling the end of his nose. Soon enough, it drops and her nose is pressed into the curve of his neck. Soft breaths are puffing against his neck, sending uncomfortable, ticklish shock waves down his spine. 

Ben reaches over and turns the tv off, looking over at Hux. 

“This time,” he whispers, “you’re perfectly welcome to take the couch.”

And Hux does. With slow, careful movements, he scoops her up off the couch and carries her to his bed, laying her down and tucking her in as he’d seen Ben do. It takes a strange amount of effort to keep himself from smoothing his fingers across her forehead, but he resists, instead scooping the other pillow off the bed and grabbing a blanket from the closet, 

His brain eventually slows down and he falls asleep, his long limbs folded awkwardly into the couch cushions, his face pressed up against the spot where Rey had fallen asleep. 

It still smells like her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let's be real. We all have a cousin Robbie.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been struggling to keep up the pace in the last couple of days, and I'm not *super* happy with this chapter, but I promised my sister that I'd update if she finished her speech, and.....she finished her speech, so here we are. 
> 
> Thank you to everyone who reads and comments! You guys are seriously what keeps me writing.

Hux is in his bedroom, standing over his bed and staring at the wrapped package laying on his neatly-made bed. It’s Thanksgiving morning. The last week has been busy—work before the holidays usually is—and he hasn’t had the time to be around Rey and Ben much. 

These are the facts, and they’re actually valid reasons for why he couldn’t ask Rey before he went ahead and did this. But they aren’t the reasons he didn’t ask. He knew she would refuse, for one, and two...he’d lose his nerve if he had to ask her first. He’s losing his nerve right now. 

With a deep breath, he takes the package and walks out of his room. Rey is there, standing in the living room; she arrived early at his request. Ben left last night to spend the night at his parents’ house, so it’s just the two of them there. Somehow that fact makes this harder.

“What do you have there?” she asks, nodding her head towards the package in his hands. It’s plain brown paper tied with twine. He’d specifically asked for the most nondescript wrapping possible, didn’t want to make a big deal out of this. 

He holds it out. 

Rey cocks an eyebrow at him, reaching forward to take it. She tests the weight, squishes it between her fingers and then gives him a wary look before pulling the end of the twine. The paper comes unfolded fairly easily, and then thick folds of mint-green fabric are spilling into her fingers. She all but drops the paper and string, taking the fabric by one end and letting it fall the floor. 

Her quick inhale when she realizes what it is sends a panicked pang through Hux.

It’s a dress. He’d found one of her shirts in Ben’s laundry, had guessed at the correct size from that, and had a woman from the counter help him pick it out. He’d liked the buttery feel of the fabric in his fingers, the softness of the color.

“You—you bought me a dress?” She says, tearing her gaze away from it to look at Hux. Her eyes are wide, like a startled deer. 

“I just wanted to—I thought that you might...like the color.” He says. None of it is what he’d practiced saying in the mirror for days now. 

She looks confused. 

“We haven’t had a chance to discuss today—it’s going to be fairly formal and I thought since I didn’t have a chance to tell you, I’d—”

“You could make time to go out and buy me a dress but you couldn’t make time to talk to me about wearing a dress to Thanksgiving dinner?” Her eyebrows are pulled down together, and a small frown is playing at the edges of her lips.

Hux flushes. It’s an infuriating habit that he’ll never kick, the curse of his pale, freckled skin and flaming hair. “You wouldn’t have bought a dress had you attended Thanksgiving dinner with Ben’s family. I didn’t want you to have to buy it for this. You’re doing me a favor.” 

Her face softens at this. She swallows, meeting his eye for a moment before she looks down at the dress in her hands, rubbing her thumbs into the shoulders. “The fabric is really soft. And the color is beautiful.” She says. 

Hux allows himself a small smile. “I’m glad you think so.” 

“I’ll just—go put it on?” she says, turning to look at the doorway to Ben’s bedroom. “Will I need….help?” 

“Help?” Hux says. 

“Is there a zipper in the back?” 

Hux shuts his eyes tight. “Ah. Yes, there is.” In truth, he hadn’t even thought of something like that when he’d picked the dress out. 

“Then, I’ll go put it on and you can...do it up for me.” 

She goes into Ben’s bedroom, shutting the door, and he can hear the shuffle of her clothing and then she’s opening the door again, waving him in. He steps over a few small piles of dirty clothes; Ben is notoriously careless and unorganized. 

She turns and Hux’s mouth goes dry. The zipper is small, as delicately made as the rest of the dress, but it extends from the small of her back up to the middle of it. It’s opened now, the edges falling open to reveal the lightly freckled skin of her back, bisected by the thin white strap of her bra. She’s holding the dress closed as well as she can, but the angle is awkward and there’s….a lot of skin exposed. 

She clears her throat, looking back at him with nervous eyes. He shakes his head and steps up, pulling the sides of the dress closed with one hand and taking hold of the zipper with the other hand. She pulls her hair up out of the way, and oh good heavens, now the graceful line of her neck is laid bare as well. He goes slow, afraid that if he rushes, his hands will shake and the zipper will catch. The unfortunate side-effect of his excessive care is that his fingers trail along her warm back for twice as long as they should and he feels almost queasy, unsteady on his feet. When he finishes, he lets out a heavy breath and then silently curses as he notices the goosebumps it raises at the back of her neck. 

“Sorry,” he says, running a hand through his hair and then immediately regretting it as he musses the product in it. 

She lets her hair down, running fingers through the soft curls to set them right. Then, she turns and Hux’s stomach jumps again. 

There was no way for him to know how it would look on her. No way for him to know that the creamy mint color would contrast the tan on her arms and shoulders and face so well. It hugs the top of her torso, the neckline scooping gently, the sleeves reaching halfway to her elbows. An empire waist tucks just under her ribs, and then it’s gentle folds of fabric all the way to the floor. It’s a perfect fit, the luckiest guess of his life. 

She’s breathtaking. 

“Come here.” Hux says, and his throat is tight, strangely. She shuffles forward on bare feet and he holds his hand out. With a quizzical look, she takes it and he twirls her around, slowly, so that he can see the whole effect of the dress. 

“You look...so beautiful.” He says, and she smiles, looking at her feet as he releases her hand. 

“I’ll just get my shoes on and we can go.” She’s already bending down to put her trusty sneakers on her feet and Hux can’t help but smile. As soon as she straightens and sees his smile, she freezes. “Are they? Oh—the sneakers are probably ruining it, aren’t they?” 

Before he even knows he’s doing it he’s shaking his head. “No, no. You’re perfect.” 

She frowns, tilting her head. 

“The shoes—they’re perfect. Let’s go, shall we?” 

—————————

If it’s possible, Hux’s childhood home is even more full today than it was a week ago for Aunt Ruby’s birthday party. This holiday is serious business; there are always more relatives here than at any other family engagement. There’s the customary aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, of course. However, today, there are also second cousins, great aunts and uncles and everybody’s brought a date or a friend. 

Prior to this year, Hux has always attended alone or with Ben, never with a date. It was always a sore spot—not, of course, because Hux has ever _wanted_ to have a date, but because everyone with whom he tried to make polite conversation seemed intent on bringing it up. Though he’s still not desperate for a girlfriend to show off, Hux can admit that having Rey at his side is a small comfort and a large conversation buffer. 

Although this year, he’s still being bombarded with questions. It just so happens that they’re questions about his relationship with Rey. 

“How did you meet?” a great-aunt asks. She’s got wildly fake crimson hair, permed into tight curls all over her head. She’s wearing purple lipstick that matches her dress. 

“I’m Ben’s best friend,” Rey says, grimacing when the great-aunt (Tessie, but he doubts that Rey remembers) stares blankly at her. “Uh, Ben is Hux’s roommate?” 

“Oh! Of course!” Tessie says. “How nice.” 

Hux fakes a smile, though the eye-roll from Rey tells him he’s failed.

“Can we finally expect a wedding from you, Armie?” Tessie says, her eyes wide. 

Instantly, his fake smile drops. Rey outright laughs. “We’ve only been dating for just a little while, so we’re not quite ready to think about that yet!” She says, and Tessie seems appeased. 

“Well, when you know, don’t dally! Heaven knows this family could use a few more babies running around, don’t you think?” 

Unfortunately, Hux had just taken a drink when Rey finished speaking and Tessie’s remark makes him choke on his drink. Rey pats his back, looping her arm through his when it becomes clear that he’s not going to choke to death. 

Tessie looks confused. 

“I’m going to take him to find somewhere to clean up, if you don’t mind?” Rey says, pulling Hux’s arm and walking away before Tessie can answer her. Once they’re out of earshot, she smiles brightly and remarks, “that went well, I think!” There’s a moment of awkward tension where Hux tries to laugh but chokes on a lingering bit of liquid in his lungs. 

“So, are you really taking me somewhere to clean up, or was that just an excuse?” Hux asks, his voice a little bit hoarse. 

Rey scoffs. “Look at you—there’s nothing to clean up. You are the only person I know who could manage to choke and not even get any of it on your suit.” 

Hux isn’t sure what he should say to that but before he can think of a reply, there’s a person running straight into him, distracted by something that someone behind them is saying. It’s a man, he realizes. A second cousin he’s met a couple of times. What’s his name? Hux can’t remember. 

The man steps back and immediately begins to apologize, reaching up to wipe imaginary dust off of Hux’s jacket and tie, attempting to straighten both. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t see you there! I should watch where I’m going.” 

Hux, annoyed but determined to remain polite, steps back and puts his arms out to deter the man from continuing to touch him. “Really, it’s fine. No harm done.” he says, and then he reaches down to put a hand on Rey’s, hoping to lead her away. 

But Rey is frozen—she’s standing still, staring at the man with wide eyes and a slightly-opened mouth. It would be comical if it didn’t send a thrill of fearful anticipation up Hux’s spine. 

“James?” she whispers, but it’s not to get the man’s attention. He’s already looking at her with a shocked look on his face. 

“Rey?” he says, taking a step towards them to counter the step back Hux took just a moment ago. 

It’s fine. Everything’s fine.

“What are you doing here?” Rey asks, a smile spreading across her face. “I thought you were—school?” 

The man—James shrugs and smiles back, “I finished! Though I should be asking you the same question, really. This is _my_ family Thanksgiving. What are _you_ doing here?”

Rey stands for a moment, just smiling widely before she (comes to her senses and) reacts finally, responding quickly. “Oh—I’m here with Hux.” Does she seem flustered? Her face is pink, a little.

“Hux?” James turns, at last, to Hux. “You’re his date?” 

“My girlfriend, yes.” Hux says, smiling coldly at James. It’s evidence of his immense self-control that the hand at his side remains relaxed; in his mind, it’s curling into a tight fist. 

“Your girlfriend? Hux has a girlfriend?” The word in his mouth, girlfriend, sounds like a profanity. 

Rey continues to smile. “Yes! He’s roommates with my best friend. We met and hit it off.” 

James raises his eyebrows. “Well, I’m sorry that I didn’t finish med school sooner, then. Maybe I would have had a chance.” 

A high-pitched, ridiculously obscene giggle escapes from Rey’s mouth. Her face is more than pink now. 

Hux disengages himself from Rey, trying to ignore the sudden cold spot in the crook of his arm. “Shame. Darling, I’m going to go ahead and find the bathroom.” 

Using his full height to his advantage, he’s striding away out of reach before Rey or James can say anything more. 

He doesn’t stop; not when his mother lays a hand on his arm, right on that spot where Rey’s hand had rested, not when Aunt Ruby calls his name, not when Robbie slaps him on the back. He climbs the stairs. This house is his, he’s more than allowed to go and find a bathroom on the second floor if he needs the privacy. Dust clings to his fingers where he trails them along the banister on the way up and the hallway at the top of the stairway is dark, cold. 

No matter, he hasn’t needed light to walk this hallway in many years. Third door down, right side, there’s the bathroom of his childhood days. It’s been updated since he was young, but it still has the same blue-striped wallpaper, the same white tiles. There’s still a small stool under the sink, though Hux knows that this bathroom hasn’t seen any use since he left, much less use from children. 

Reaching behind him, he shuts the door with a soft snick, leaning against the sink and looking at himself in the mirror. 

His hair is mussed from when he’d run his hand through it, and he curses himself for not fixing it before he walked in today. There’s a smudge on his glasses, he doesn’t even want to think about how he hadn’t noticed that. His tie and jacket are hanging crooked on him. 

He looks like a mess. A mess.

If there’s one thing Hux has always been sure of, it’s himself. Over the years there have been many things that he couldn’t control but this, this he could. His pants could be creased, his hair smooth, his glasses straight, tie coordinated. Perhaps it’s nothing more than a silly coping mechanism, but it’s been working for him thus far. A bad board meeting can be dismissed if only he can stand in front of a mirror and see all of the things he’s got under his cotrol. 

This is not comforting. But it could be. 

The first thing he does is remove his glasses and wipe the smudge off with a small cloth in the inner pocket of his jacket. With a careful, practiced hand, he smooths his hair into place. 

His tie is a bit more difficult—he starts smoothing it, but then unties it and re-ties it. The motions are centering. It’s just a dinner. 

The knob of the tap is old-fashioned—the original from when the house was constructed; Hux has to think before he turns on the cold water, wetting the tips of his fingers to test the temperature before plunging his hands under. He rubs the cold water over his cheeks, up under his glasses, and then uses the hand towel at the side of the sink to wipe them dry. 

He looks a little calmer. 

One more breath to center himself. In, then out. He walks to the door, turning the knob and pausing before he opens it. 

When he finally opens it, he’s met with Rey, wide-eyed, her hand raised. She opens her mouth as he frowns. “Your mother said I might find you here.” 

“Is everything alright?” Hux says, looking past her, down the hall. It’s still dark, still empty. 

“You tell me.” 

“What do you mean?” 

“You ran away! What’s the deal, Hux?” 

He looks down at her, really looks down at her. She’s looking at him with an...angry expression? 

“I’m fine.” he says, and he takes a step forward, hoping that she’ll take the hint and move so that he can walk down the hall.

She does not. His step presses him right up against her. Her nose would have brushed the knot of his tie had she not been looking directly up at him. As it were, the tilt of her head put her face much closer to his than he was comfortable with. 

She huffs out; Hux can see she’s clearly frustrated now that her face is inches from his, and her breath smells like the white wine they’d been drinking. 

“Look, I get that this is hard for you, but I can’t help you unless you tell me what’s going on in that stupid stubborn head of yours, Hux.” 

And there it is—as soon as she says his name, his body flushes warm and all he can focus on is the way her mouth opens on the “h” of his name before her teeth are snapping closed around the “x.” 

His hand comes up before he can think, his fingers spreading wide, and he’s cupping her neck, and her skin is warm, so warm that he’s sliding his hand up her neck to curl around her jaw, fingertips burying in her hair. 

She inhales, and the movement opens her mouth and Hux’s eyes flick up to hers. If he was uncomfortable with how close she was a moment ago, the proximity is maddening now, especially because her eyes are burning into his and her mouth is opened and if he just—

“I was glad when James moved, because then I didn’t have to dump him.” Rey whispers. The words slip directly from her mouth and into his, perfumed with the fruit of the wine. 

“I’m—what?” 

A slow, creeping grin spreads across Rey’s face, showing her teeth and crinkling her eyes. 

“I dated him, he left for school, I was relieved. Try to keep up.” 

“Why are you telling me this?” Hux says. The haze is dissipating and he’s dropping his hand and stepping away from her. 

“I—I thought you were…” 

“I don’t have any idea what you mean. I needed to use the restroom, so I came upstairs to where I knew an empty bathroom would be waiting. We should return before anyone misses us.” 

This time when he steps forward she does move out of his way. He doesn’t wait to see if she’s following him and he definitely doesn’t look at her face.

“Armitage!” his mother cries as soon as he’s rounded the first set of stairs. The entire room, it seems, looks up at him, and then Rey comes down the stairs behind him, and there are noises, “we-know-what’s-going-on” noises from the foot of the stairs, and Hux isn’t stupid. He knows how it looks. He’s flushed and Rey’s hair is out of place, and they’re coming from the level with all the bedrooms and the implications of it make him flush harder, which doesn’t help at all. 

Nothing happened. But it’s probably in his best interests if people believe that something did. Especially because Hux can see James standing between two of his great-aunts, and he’s scowling. 

“We’re just about to start dinner, dears, would you come help me get people to their seats?” His mother says, beckoning him downstairs like nothing’s happened (nothing has!). 

He gratefully accepts, Rey following behind him silently.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shout out to Isharan for being the literal ONLY reason that I got any of this chapter finished. 
> 
> And also SuperNintendoChalmers for what has to be the best comment I have ever received in my life. I'm going to screenshot it, print it, and hang it on my mantle. 
> 
> [Here is Rey's dress](https://cdn-img-2.wanelo.com/p/258/4e7/de3/4f48af9958f7e486a80b61e/x354-q80.jpg) and [Here is what I imagine my Hux looks like](http://feredir.tumblr.com/post/143706056934/commission-for-coffee-without-a-pause-of-a-top) (but with glasses) and also I spent 90 hours looking at children's bathrooms and 90 hours looking at wine pairings for thanksgiving (my sorry butt doesn't know anything about that, unfortunately) but I won't link to any of that. Writing is crazy.
> 
> ALSO if you're on tumblr but didn't follow me here from there....come join me! [I'm rachel-greatest](https://rachel-greatest.tumblr.com) and I yell about Star Wars and The Adventure Zone and various assorted things.


	5. Chapter 5

Unlike the week earlier when the table in the dining room had been pushed back against the wall to allow for polite mingling, and unlike the week before that when one long table had been placed in the middle of the room for Rey, Hux, and his parents, the dining room is now host to three long tables. The tables are spaced evenly around the room, place-cards on each plate so that no one would fight over seats, and so that once in their seats, no one would fight with their neighbors. Ruby couldn’t be seated next to Brendol; such an arrangement would inevitably end in an argument about the turkey and that one time Ruby broke an antique vase belonging to their grandmother. 

Why did nobody think about who Hux shouldn’t be seated near? Across the table from where he and Rey are sitting side-by-side (and close enough that her thigh brushes his every time she shifts), is none other than cousin Robbie and second-cousin James. Hux knows that his mother is just trying to encourage sociability between Hux and his peers, but honestly, it might be less painful to sit near Great-Aunt Tessie and listen to her incessant chatter. At least his cousin Stephanie is seated next to Robbie. She’s always been kind to him.

Hux is just here to eat turkey and lend credence to his fake-relationship with Rey. 

Rey, who currently won’t look at him or anyone else, probably because he almost kissed her before snapping at her and walking away.

Great. 

The real question is, Hux thinks to himself, does he want to kiss her? Was it just some strange trance? He chances a glance sideways, sees Rey looking down in her lap, fiddling with the cloth napkin there. Her lashes brush her cheeks, and she’s biting down on her full, pink lower lip. 

She’s clearly been biting her lip for quite some time; Hux can see some of her lipstick on the bottom of her front teeth. The sight makes him lick his own teeth reflexively before swallowing hard.

Before he can look away, she’s looking up at him, the distant expression on her face morphing into frustration. Hux frowns, opening his mouth to speak, but his father is standing up from the head of the middle table, holding his glass and calling for Uncle Scott to give the blessing on the food. 

It’s the 2 minutes out of the whole year that Hux can count on his family to be a quiet, united entity. There’s something about opening his eyes and seeing the rows of heads bowed reverently that fills Hux with a feeling of calm that he just can’t find any other time he’s forced to be with his family in large numbers. 

When it’s over, the chatter resumes immediately, accompanied by the clink of serving spoons and dishes being passed around, knives and forks scraping across plates. Laughter drifts lazily above the din, warm and light. The spell is broken.

Hux is so uncomfortable. 

He serves Rey, murmuring questions to her and receiving answers in the form of one word answers and head movements. She won’t look him in the eyes. 

In fact, she doesn’t look up until Robbie breaks the relative silence on their end of the table with a question directed towards her. 

“So, how long have you and Armie been dating?” 

“Oh—a couple of months.” she says. 

“Wow, it must be pretty serious if you agreed to come for a family holiday with him. You must have your own family Thanksgiving celebration, right?” Robbie’s mouth is half-full while he speaks, and Hux fights the urge to roll his eyes all the way into the back of his head. 

“Uh, actually.” Rey says, and Hux’s heart squeezes as he realizes what she’s about to say. “I don’t. Have a family to celebrate with, that is.” 

Robbie’s face falls and Hux feels a surge of satisfaction at the sight. “I’m sorry.” he says. 

“Don’t be. I’m here now and everyone has been so wonderful to me.” Rey says, smiling genuinely as she takes a bite of potatoes. 

Stephanie pipes up from beside Robbie. “How did you two meet?” 

Hux clears his throat, adjusts the frame of his glasses, “My roommate, Ben, is Rey’s best friend. We met through him.” 

“That’s so nice.” Stephanie says. “I bet it took Armitage a long time to ask you out,” she says now, to Rey. “He’s always been a bit shy.” 

Rey laughs, the sound of it strangely dry and harsh. “Has he? Well, he didn’t ask me out. I asked him out.” 

Robbie whoops, earning him dirty looks from the rest of the table. “You know, I honestly can’t believe that you’ve managed to land this girl, Armie!”

Hux laughs nervously. Everything’s awkward, between Rey’s weird laughing and Robbie’s comment that strikes a little too close to home. Rey’s taking a drink but her hand is trembling just a little on the stem of the wineglass. 

Robbie narrows his eyes, looking between Rey and Hux. “You...did land her, didn’t you, Armie?” Stephanie smacks his arm. “What? Wouldn’t put it past Armie to bring a fake girlfriend just to make himself feel good.” 

Rey chokes on her wine. 

With a huge roll of her eyes, Stephanie scoffs. “A fake girlfriend? Come on, Robbie. Nobody actually does that outside of b-rated rom-coms and trashy romance novels.” 

“Then tell me why neither of them is saying anything, huh?” Robbie says. By this point, the people on either side of Stephanie and Robbie have abandoned their conversations and are listening to Robbie. 

“Well, if you can’t tell, Rey is attempting to avoid choking to death.” Hux says, reaching over to pat her on the back lamely. She stiffens at his touch, which isn’t going to help their case any. 

“Naw,” Robbie says, “I think she’s trying to distract us from the fact that she’s only pretending to be your girlfriend so you don’t have to feel stupid. Let’s face it, Armie, a girlfriend isn’t going to magically whisk away the real reason you feel uncomfortable around everyone.” 

“Robbie, hush.” Stephanie says. 

“What an awful, absurd thing to say!” Rey croaks, but she’s still cringing away from Hux. 

“I would never be so dramatic as to pretend to have a date for my own family Thanksgiving.” 

Hux and Rey aren’t looking at each other. Robbie raises his eyebrows. 

“Well, then. Prove it.” 

“Pr—Prove it?” Rey says. 

“Yeah! Do something a fake couple wouldn’t do.” 

“Robbie!” Stephanie says. “We’re at the dinner table, remember.” 

“Sweetheart, we can eat in the kitchen, if you’d like.” Hux says, and the shock of the endearment sliding off his tongue like it’s nothing at all makes him groan internally. 

Rey blinks at him. She looks around her, eyes falling on a dish directly in front of them. Hux almost groans out loud as he sees the gears working in her head. He can read the phrase on her lips a fraction of a second before she utters it. 

“No, no...sweet potato. It’s fine.” Rey says, and Robbie raises his eyebrows. Hux curls his fingers into the side of his pants, probably wrinkling the fabric. “We’ll show him something a fake couple wouldn’t do. Since he’s so concerned about our relationship and all.” 

Hux’s fingers go slack in surprise, and then they’re flying up, scrambling for purchase on Rey’s shoulders as she cups his face in her hands. Her fingertips touch the edges of his glasses where they tuck behind his ears. As she meets his gaze her eyes burn golden brown, like molten honey, her lips parting as she leans forward in one smooth motion to press against his mouth. 

Shock has him clutching her tight, he’s inhaling and that opens his mouth and now he can feel her breath on his tongue and then she’s licking at his lower lip before pulling at it with her teeth. She tastes like the dry, fruity wine as she releases his lip and dives back into the kiss. Her hands are sliding back into the hair just behind his ears, warm fingers spreading across the back of his head. 

Electricity is dancing along his spine, radiating from the points of each of her fingers on his scalp. Are there other people in the room? Hux can’t focus on them, can’t focus on anything but the wet heat of her mouth, the slide of her tongue against his, that sound she just made in the back of her throat. The bridge of his nose aches where his glasses are digging in, a little farther every time she presses their mouths together. His arms wrap around her, his hands stroking on the bare skin above the back of her dress. The chill of his fingers makes her shiver into the kiss, and Hux’s eyes almost roll into the back of his head. 

A burst of particularly loud laughter from somewhere across the room seems to startle Rey and she stiffens, disengaging her mouth from Hux’s with a delicate wet noise. As she moves her face away from his, her fingers tighten in his hair. They stare into each other’s eyes for a beat, Hux can see that Rey’s pupils are dilated and her lips are pink and swollen. 

Slowly, Hux leans in again, planting a soft, damp kiss to her lower lip and then pulls back and looks at Robbie, Stephanie, and James. All three are staring, slack-jawed. 

It’s Rey who speaks first, her fingers still tangled in Hux’s hair, her breathing heavy. 

“Is that proof enough?” she says, rubbing her fingers up Hux’s scalp before dropping her hands and straightening in her chair. Using the cloth napkin in her lap, she wipes around her mouth and then picks up her fork and knife and continues to eat. 

Robbie answers, a little too breathlessly for someone who wasn’t even kissing, “Was it?!” 

Hux realizes, a beat too late, probably, that he shouldn’t be reacting like this is their first kiss (however mind-blowingly _first_ it might have been). 

In a movement to panicked to be smooth, he’s running his hands through his hair and then over his face, removing his glasses and wiping the lenses before taking a sip of wine and inhaling, trying to catch his breath. 

There’s silence for the rest of the meal except for the clinking of forks and knives and hushed requests for dishes to be passed down.

It’s about halfway through dessert when the haze from…the kiss dissipates and Hux realizes that Ben is going to kill him when he finds out about this. Ben had one rule for him, and Hux had broken it. Really, Rey had broken it, but Hux doubted Ben will see it that way. No, certainly not. Hux feels so guilty, he hasn’t even been able to bring himself to look at Rey since the kiss. 

Did she like it? The thought wanders through the forefront of his mind before he can stop it. No, his inner voice says, rather sternly. She was just shutting Robbie up. You asked her to play a part and she’s playing it as best she can. The thought fills Hux with a degree of discomfort, but he shrugs it off and rubs his hand across his forehead, wiping his thoughts clean, as if his mind were a dry-erase board to be cleared with a swipe of his fingers. 

Distance. Forcible distance, that’s what he needs. He’s allowing himself to be sucked in by the lie, and there’s just no need for that. 

Rey tries to catch his eye as they gather their coats, as they walk to the car. She tries to make conversation on the way home, but Hux forces himself to avoid her eyes, to keep his gaze on the road. When they return home, she leaves the car without waiting for him to open her door. Ben had given her keys to the apartment years ago, and by the time Hux makes it up the stairs, the door is open, swaying lightly on the hinges. Ben’s door slams shut further back in the apartment. 

Hux sighs, heavy and noisy. He pulls off his coat, hanging it up in the closet by the apartment door, and then trudges back to his room to undress. As he’s closing his door, Ben’s door opens and a pile of thick green fabric is falling to the ground before the door snaps shut again. Her dress. 

What a drama queen, Hux thinks. He changes and remains in his room, answering a few emails and looking over some projects he’d need to pick up on Monday morning. He tries not to think about Rey, or her lips. It’s about an hour into this excuse for solitude that he hears it: a soft knock on his bedroom door. 

Can he ignore it? His immediate thought is yes. He’s doing work. It can’t be that important. His second thought is one of pure panic—what if it’s Ben? Ben will want to talk about...he’ll want to talk. 

Hux crosses the room and opens the door, doing his best to school his features into some semblance of a guilt-free expression, maybe a little blasé. Which is a mistake, he realizes a moment too soon—Rey is on the other side of the door, not Ben. 

She’s wearing a pair of Ben’s sweats, they’re so big that she’s drowning in them. The t-shirt is...His, Hux realizes. A faded red Star Wars t-shirt with the Millennium Falcon on it; it must have made its way into Ben’s laundry by accident. Seeing it on Rey leaves an uncomfortable itch in his chest that he dismisses. 

It’s after this ridiculous internal conversation that Hux notices Rey’s face. It’s been scrubbed clean of her makeup, recently, given the pink skin of her cheeks. Her eyebrows are furrowed and she’s chewing her bottom lip. Her eyes are on his feet.

“...Rey?” Hux says. She continues to look at the floor still, but her teeth press harder into her lip. “Did you need something? Is Ben home?” She shakes her head but doesn’t look up yet. Her hands are toying with the edge of Hux’s t-shirt. Frustrated, Hux reaches out and tucks his fingers under her chin, forcing her to tilt her head up towards him. 

As her eyes meet his, they’re soft, almost questioning. She’s still biting her lip. The glint of the light off her white teeth draws Hux’s eyes down. A jolt of heat darts up the back of his neck as he remembers her mouth on his. It takes every ounce of self-control he has to avoid leaning forward to recreate that kiss. She wanted something, he remembers. She knocked on his door. Find out what it was.

When his gaze finally flicks back up to meet hers, her eyes aren’t soft anymore. She’s looking at him like she wants to devour him. A part of Hux wonders if this is what she knocked on his door for—if she’s been reliving the kiss as vividly as he has. If she has...maybe he could just. Once more? He leans in, his fingers still holding her chin up to his face, but halfway down he pulls back. 

“I’m sorry, I—” Hux says, but Rey’s eyes harden and she reaches up, fisting her hands into his t-shirt and yanking him down to her. 

This kiss is graceless. It’s messy, it’s wet, full of teeth. Hux tries to pull away, but Rey growls and tugs him down again, biting his lip in a poor excuse for punishment. The sharp pain lights a fire in the pit of his stomach, and his defenses crumble. His arms wind around her waist, pulling her body against his, and he groans as he feels how small she is in his arms—so thin inside his t-shirt.   
She’s released his shirt, presumably because she’s satisfied that he isn’t going to pull away, and is reaching up to slide her hands in his hair, this time refusing to shy away from the longer hair on top of his head for the sake of propriety. Her nails scrape against his scalp and he shudders, his brow furrowing. 

The fire in the pit of his stomach is spreading, up through his rib cage, down the tops of his thighs, burning behind his eyes and in his ears. A surge of hysterical desire rises in his chest and he slides his palms up her waist, his fingers dancing along her ribcage before he’s meeting the soft skin of her underarm, tracing up to her elbow before reaching back down to grip her hips. 

Rey pulls away from the kiss, leaving Hux’s mouth wet and hot and lonely, but she doesn’t untangle herself, just looks over Hux’s shoulder before she’s kissing him again, pushing him backward this time. When his knees hit the back of the bed, he squeezes his eyes shut and shakes his head. But she’s unrelenting—she pushes him down and immediately climbs into his lap. She leaves his lips, using her grip on his hair to tilt his head back so she can pepper kisses along the rough, stubbled skin on the underside of his jaw. When she reaches the soft skin behind his ear, she bites, and Hux cries out, clutching her hips tighter as she pulls at the skin with her teeth, sucking, marking. 

The front door opens. 

Rey jumps off of Hux’s lap so quickly that, for a second, he’s sure she was never there at all. She darts to his door, closing it as quickly as she can and then slumping against it, her eyes wild and her face flushed. 

From the other side of the door Ben calls “Hux? Rey?” 

Hux is still sitting on his bed, trying to calm himself, smoothing his hair down and wiping his mouth clean. He stands, opens his mouth to reply to Ben (only heaven knows what he’s actually going to say), but Rey’s shaking her head, a finger pressed against her lips. 

“What?!” Hux whisper-shouts. 

“I—I didn’t come in here to make-out!” she replies. Hux scoffs as quietly as he can manage. “I’m serious!” she says. “I had a—I wanted to ask you about what Robbie said.” 

A firm knock on Hux’s door makes them both jump. “Hux?” Ben calls. “Are you in there? Is Rey with you? I can’t find her.” 

Rey jumps up, scrambling to sit in the chair beside Hux’s desk, smoothing her hair and hissing at Hux, pointing to his neck. 

Crap. She’d left a mark! Hux reaches over to the end of his bed and tugs on a hooded sweatshirt, hoping that it will at least disguise the mark until he can figure out what to do about it. The sweatshirt pulls at his glasses and he fixes them as quickly as he can.

“Yeah! We’re in here!” Rey calls, her voice high and false. 

Ben opens the door, a quizzical look on his face. “What are you guys doing? And why is there a dress on on the floor?”

Hux pales.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do recognize that was a poor place to end the chapter. 
> 
> I'm sorry it took so long to get this out! I had a sick baby this weekend, and no husband...so I spent most of my time caring for the sick one and catching up on sleep :D
> 
> Thank you to everybody who reads and comments! You guys are the REAL MVPS here.


	6. Chapter 6

As Rey attempts to answer Ben, Hux realizes that she is a terrible liar. 

“I—uh, I spilled something on it and I needed to wash it but I—had to ask Hux about something first, and—”

She’s also making everything so much worse. So much worse. Ben’s eyebrows are shooting up, higher with every word that Rey speaks. 

“He was just showing me—his work thing, and the door—”

“Whoa, whoa. Hold up. Where did the dress come from? I thought you were going to wear jeans today.” 

Rey blushes, and Hux does too, thinking of his fingers on her bare skin pulling the zipper up. 

“Hux...got it for me.” Rey says, and she’s running a thumb over the hem of Hux’s shirt, looking down. 

“Hux—wait, is that his shirt?” Ben says, and Rey’s head shoots up, her face bright red. 

“No! I found it in your basket!” She says, and Ben frowns. 

“I’m pretty sure it’s Hux’s.” And Ben looks over at Hux, who nods, attempting to look as blasé as possible about it. 

“Oh!” Rey says, and she tugs the hem out away from her. “I can—you can have it back.” For a second, Hux is afraid she’s going to take it off right there. 

“No! You keep it. It—uh, suits you better than it does me. The red, and my hair…” 

Hux chances a glance at Ben and he’s glancing back and forth between them, an amused look on his face. 

“So you were just in here talking about work.” Ben says. It’s not a question. 

“Yes.” Hux says. Rey is nodding a little to vigorously to be believable. 

“Okay.” 

“Okay.”

Ben raises his eyebrows. “If anyone wants ice cream, I’m gonna go out and get some. We’re out and I’m dying for something sweet.”

“Didn’t you have pie at dinner?” Hux says.

Ben snorts. “No one in my family can cook. It’s a miracle the turkey was edible, I wasn’t going to risk pie!” 

“I want chocolate!” Rey says. Ben nods and looks to Hux. 

“You want anything?” 

Hux wrinkles his nose. “No, thanks.” 

In a comical movement, much too childish for his huge shoulders, Ben shrugs. “Suit yourself. I’ll be back in ten.” 

Ben doesn’t shut Hux’s bedroom door behind him, instead throwing a pointed look towards Hux over his shoulder. 

As soon as the apartment door shuts, Hux is huffing, flopping back onto his bed, an arm thrown over his eyes. He can hear Rey shifting, giggling nervously. 

He pulls his arm off of his eyes and tries to sit up in a sharp movement as he feels Rey’s weight settle over his stomach, but she pushes him back down with the flat of her palm, a wicked grin on her face. 

“Rey—” Hux groans, but she shushes him, leans forward, and kisses him softly. Much softer than she’d kissed him earlier. It’s so gentle, the press of her lips against his, that he almost wonders if he’s imagining it. She pulls back after a few seconds and plants a delicate kiss on each of his cheeks. 

The sensation makes him feel too hot, uncomfortable. There’s an itch in his chest, and every time she brings her lips back to his skin it intensifies. 

“Rey, I thought you didn’t...come in here for this.” Hux says, finally. Each syllable is a struggle.

“I didn’t,” she replies, and the feel of her breath against his ear sends tingles through his arm and down his leg, strangely. “But things happen, you know.” 

“We can’t. You’ve got to—stop!” Hux’s voice jumps as she presses a soft kiss against the mark she’d left earlier, her tongue darting out to smooth over the tender skin. He brings his palms up to rest against her knees, fighting to keep his fingers slack. 

“You want me to...stop?” Rey says, but she doesn’t move, just continues leaving a trail of kisses down his neck, nosing at the hair behind his ears. Hux can’t think, can’t do anything but tilt his head to the side to allow her better access. The itch is spreading, getting hotter. 

“You need to.” Hux says, finally. “Stop, I mean.” 

Rey sits up, frowns. 

“Do you want me to?” She asks. 

_No_ , Hux thinks. “Yes.” He says.

She abruptly climbs off of him, standing by the bed instead. “I’m sorry.” Her cheeks are red, her mouth is deliciously pink. 

“We can’t...do this.” Hux says, finally. “That’s not why I—I didn’t ask you to do this so that we could—” He sits up, rubbing his eyes under his glasses. “What were you going to...ask me?” 

Rey shakes her head. “Nothing. It doesn’t matter. I’ll leave you.” 

Hux wants to shake his head, to reach out and pull her hand back. He does neither. 

“I’m sorry for—this was selfish.” Rey says. 

“Oh,” Hux says. “I just don’t want to..without feelings it’s, not. We really shouldn’t.” 

Rey nods, “I understand.” The look on her face makes Hux feel like a jerk. 

When Ben comes home, Rey is in the living room with a book and Hux is in his room with the door shut. Like a coward, Hux doesn’t open his door and join them. He doesn’t listen at the door to hear their conversation, even though he wonders if Rey is telling Ben everything. He doesn’t open his work back up, and he doesn’t sleep. He just lays on the bed in the dark, eyes wide open. For the rest of the evening. 

When he finally falls asleep, it’s with his glasses still on and his fingers pressed to the mark behind his ear. 

————————

The comfortable rapport he’d built with Rey and Ben is gone in the days following. 

Hux goes back to work on Friday morning and is gone all day. During his lunch break he receives a text from his mother asking if he and Rey will be going to church this Sunday, and he reluctantly tells her he will check with Rey. It takes him 45 minutes to work up the courage to send the simple, one-line text. 

_1:15 PM My mother wants us to go to church on Sunday, do you have plans?_

_1:17 PM I don’t. Ben is coming?_

_1:18 PM That will be fine._

And that’s it. 

Hux wakes up and eats breakfast in the kitchen on Saturday morning, but there’s no acknowledgement from Rey and Ben, who are on the couch watching silly cartoons.

He showers and sits in his room reading. He leaves the door open a crack, but neither Rey nor Ben pokes their head in. 

On Saturday night he works up the courage to address them directly, standing just outside the kitchen. They’re playing a card game together at the table. 

“I’m going to get Chinese...do you two want any?” 

Ben answers without looking up. “We already ate.” 

Hux knows for a fact that they haven’t. He wouldn’t have asked if they had already eaten.

“Oh. Okay.” He says. “Church is at 11. Tomorrow morning.” 

Ben nods. “We’ll be ready.” 

Hux decides to eat in the restaurant, since eating alone at a table in a public place will at least allow him the illusion of company. If he eats at home he’ll be forced to face the silence from Rey and Ben. It also allows them to eat while he’s gone, so none of them have to face the awkwardness of Ben’s lie. 

They’re gone when he comes home, and he goes to bed early instead of taking advantage of their absence. 

Rey isn’t there in the morning when Hux wakes up and gets in the shower. He’s halfway through shampooing his hair when the lock on the bathroom door pops open and Ben forces his way through the door. 

“Listen up, Hux.” Ben says, and Hux pokes his head around the curtain, raising his eyebrows. Ben is far enough away to be blurry, still, but he hopes the effect is enough. “Oh, don’t look at me like you don’t know what’s going on.” 

Hux snaps the curtain closed and continues with his shower, soaping up a washcloth. 

“You did something. To make Rey upset. I know it, even though she won’t tell me what happened.” 

Hux scoffs. “Yeah, right. Of course she told you.” 

“Actually, she didn’t. I’m assuming it was some stupid protective move on her part, and if I can convince her to tell me, you can bet that I’m going to. But as of now, she won’t.” 

“And why are you telling me this?” Hux says, passing the washcloth over his face and then tilting his head so that the spray of shower the shower washes all the suds off. 

“Because you’re going to fix it. Whatever you did, you’re going to apologize, you’re going to make it right.” Ben’s voice is hard. There’s no room for argument here. 

“I—” 

“I don’t actually care to discuss the details. If Rey doesn’t want to tell me, I’ll respect that. Just...get it done. You’re my roommate, and we’ve known each other for a long time, but she’s my best friend, and I won’t have you messing with her feelings.” 

The bathroom door opens and then shuts, and Hux stands under the spray for a minute, letting it go cold before he twists the knob and turns the water off. 

When he finishes dressing and smoothing his hair down, he can hear Rey and Ben talking in the living room. It’s 10:15, and they need to leave soon if they’re going to make it in time. 

They stop talking and turn as Hux comes out of the bathroom. 

“Hey, toss me your keys, Hux. I’ll start the car while you guys get your shoes on, you guys come down when you’re ready.” 

Hux rolls his eyes, but gestures towards the hook next to the door and goes to retrieve his shoes. 

He sits on the couch while he tightens the laces of his dress shoes and ties them. Rey comes to sit on the couch a little ways away, pulling on her trusty sneakers without bothering to tie them. 

“I...” Hux begins, but his voice is hoarse, so he clears his throat and tries again. “I apologize for...being indelicate. The other day. I just think you should save...that...for someone you share feelings with.” 

Rey ducks her head to straighten the tongue of her shoes. 

“I do...enjoy your company. I hope you can accept my friendship.” Hux says. He feels he’s doing something wrong here, but he can’t tell what. 

“Friends.” Rey says, turning to look at Hux, finally. 

“I—yes.” He says. “Yes?” 

Rey looks past him and then at him before nodding. She stands and stretches out a hand to help him up. The silliness of the gesture makes Hux smile, but when he stands and turns to look at Rey, her smile is softer, slower. Sweet. There’s that itch in his chest again.

“You—had something you wanted to ask me, didn’t you?” 

Rey’s smile droops a little, and her eyes widen. “No?” 

“Yes, about Robbie?” 

“I don’t think so.” 

Hux knows. He has a good memory. The hissed insistence in the dim light of his room wouldn’t have faded that quickly anyway. He regards her for a long moment. It’s not as if Hux wants to talk about it, really. 

“....if you’re sure?” 

“Yep.” 

They shuffle out the door then and head downstairs to where Ben is waiting in the back seat of the car, which is idling gently. It’s damp out, Hux can see the little puffs of air coming out of Rey’s mouth when she breathes. For a strange moment, he wants to grab her, clutch her to him, breathe those visible wisps of air straight from her tongue. 

Friends. There’s no place for such thoughts. It’s inappropriate, and Ben will kill him if he doesn’t stop messing things up. This was not supposed to be some sort of fake-relationship/friends-with-benefits arrangement. He still has to live with Rey and Ben after this. 

He wipes a little bit of mist off his forehead and closes the car door firmly. 

“Are you guys good?” Ben says, and Rey groans. 

“We’re fine.” Hux says. His glasses have mist on them. He cleans them and then starts the car.

“Still not gonna tell me what happened?” Ben asks, leaning forward to put his head between Rey and Hux’s shoulders. 

Rey rolls her eyes; Hux can just see it in his periphery. With roads wet like this, he doesn’t dare chance a glance at either of them, not even a quick one. He fights the urge to roll his own eyes. Ben makes a small, indignant noise in the back of his throat and sits back. 

The church is just a few blocks from his parents’ house, a moderately sized, old-fashioned affair modeled after the west european style cathedrals, though it’s clear that the budget allowances for this building were considerably smaller than those. The stone has been darkened with age and the cold, damp weather that prevails around these parts, but the bell in the tower is still just as cheery as ever, chiming to welcome the congregation in to service. 

Rey’s eyes are wide as she gets out of the car. She smoothes down her dress. It’s the blue and white one from before, Hux notes, and it’s much too light for such cold weather. She’s looking up at the bell tower, her lips parting in awe or disbelief, or perhaps a mixture. 

Ben stops just behind her, the knot of his tie brushing her ear as he stage-whispers with a goofy smile on his face: “Fancy, isn’t it?”

Rey can only nod, eyes fixed on the church. 

Awkwardly, Hux clears his throat. “We should go in.” 

They do, avoiding spots in the asphalt where water has pooled, threatening to soak their shoes. Especially Rey’s, which are clearly made of some sort of cotton. She’s not wearing socks. Damp feet would be horrendous in this cold, and Hux takes care to subtly guide her farther away from any potentially disastrous puddles, opting to step in or over them himself. 

The chill doesn’t go away once they’re inside; the stone is uninsulated, and the windows are small, so it doesn’t even have the benefit of natural light to warm it. Hux slips out of his coat and offers it to Rey, who accepts it gratefully, slipping it over her thin cardigan. He’ll be cold in just his suit jacket, but Rey will be warmer. Ben rolls his eyes and motions to where Cynthia and Brendol are sitting, in the third pew from the front. 

They shuffle into the pew, awkwardly climbing over several people to get to the middle, where Cynthia is patting the polished wood of the bench beside her. Rey is first, so she settles next to Cynthia with a wide-eyed glance at Hux. Hux grimaces and takes his place next to her, Ben shifting to sit close enough to lean over and whisper to Rey. Whatever he says, it’s quiet enough that Hux can’t decipher it (Ben and his ultra-low, inaudible voice, Hux scoffs internally). At any rate, it seems to calm Rey down, and she turns to Cynthia with a brilliant smile. Cynthia whispers a pleasant greeting and puts her hand over Rey’s, rubbing softly. Hux is shocked, however, when his father leans around his mother and offers a quiet greeting to Rey, followed by a nod towards Hux and Ben. He might as well have stood and hugged her.

The meeting starts shortly thereafter, and Hux reaches under the pew to grab a small, black book for Rey while the organ is playing the opening procession.

“This is the script for the mass—so that you don’t feel out-of-place with everyone singing and reciting from memory.” 

Rey accepts the worn leather-bound book and smiles. “Thank you.”

They stand, they sing and speak when appropriate, and Hux is pleased to see that Rey is using her book, following along. He can see his mother’s smile as well, and his father, who is watching Rey from the corner of his eye, faintly but distinctly pleased as well. 

In fact, everything is going so well that he doesn’t think to pay attention to the psalms and scriptures, as he usually does when he attends Mass with his parents. Instead, it catches him completely off-guard when, mid-homily, the priest leans over with both hands and speaks almost directly to their row, massively unsubtle about the whole affair. 

“We have, in past, had problems in this very congregation with infidelity and adultery. There is always forgiveness, but there is no undoing the consequences of these foul actions. Take caution to…” 

Immediately, Hux’s back straightens painfully, and he’s sure that if he could see his father, his posture would be a perfect mirror. His mother’s hands clench in her lace handkerchief, her jaw set tight to prevent any sort of emotion or trembling.

Rey looks to Hux, an alarmed expression on her face. Hux won’t look at her. She reaches over to put her hand on top of his, but he preempts the movement and puts his hand under his thigh, gripping the edge of the pew with fingers as white as his face.

Rey straightens and doesn’t look at him again for the remainder of the mass. When his parents stand at the ending procession, it’s wooden and awkward. They make their way out of the pew and move to mingle with the other members of the congregation. They’re doing like they always have. Pretending as if nothing has happened. As if Brendol Hux, Sr., hasn’t just been viciously reminded of his worst mistake ever. As if Hux hasn’t been reminded that he is—

Cold. Hux is cold. Cold as he fakes a smile alongside his parents, cold as he introduces Rey to the ladies that his mother is friends with, cold as he shakes the hands of men that his father golfs with, smiles and answers that yes, his work is going well. Ben and Rey drift behind him—Ben sympathetic and pitying, Rey woefully confused about whatever is going on. 

Hux makes his excuses about why he can’t stay for dinner, a cold, a headache, extra work, something, mumbled. His mother will miss Rey, he hears. His father doesn’t even spare him a glance.

They leave the drafty church, and Hux is almost grateful for the wide sky, the cold air, the open parking lot. He was suffocating in there. As Rey and Ben get into the car, he crouches down by the driver’s seat and gasps for air, squeezing his eyes shut. It’s been so long, he’s been so careful. 

In the darkness behind his eyes, he is a little boy again, knobbly knees and ruddy cheeks, with that piece of hair in the back that was always cut so short that it stuck up. He’s listening at the door of his father’s office, his nose pressed into the crack between the jamb and the knob. He can hear his father on the phone, he’s angry. 

“I don’t care what you want—he’s not going back with you. There’s no way any son with my blood is going to be raised in such conditions, even if he is illegitimate.” 

The word sounds like a dirty one. _Illegitimate._ Small Hux doesn’t quite understand what it means. There’s distorted vocalizing through the phone, and then his father is replying. 

“You want to know what Armitage is like? I’ll tell you. He’s scrawny. Thin as a slip of paper, and just as _useless_. Not like his younger brother. Now that’s a boy, clearly mine—I’m proud to call him my son—” 

He doesn’t wait around to hear the end of the conversation. He’s scrambling into his bedroom, fitting himself into the dark space in his closet behind his clothes, gasping with his eyes squeezed shut. 

There’s a hand on his, stroking the fingers where’s he’s clamped them around his ears. His mother? Her fingers are cold. Too small to be his mother’s. They’re prying his hand off his ear, a voice whispering something he can’t understand just yet. 

_It’s Rey_ , he thinks, and his eyes fly open. He’s crouched next to the car still, and Rey is crouched next to him, her hand on his face. 

“Hux, you’re okay. I’m here, everything is fine. Breathe, you’re fine.” she says, and Hux flexes his toes, experimentally. They’re fine, his legs must be fine. He stands, rubbing his eyes underneath his glasses and nodding to Rey. It’s a short, jerky movement. “How about I drive?” She asks, slipping her fingers into his and taking the keys from his fingers. 

“I can drive!” Hux says. It’s too loud. His voice trembles.

“I know. But can I?” Rey says. “I’d like to.” 

Hux thinks for a moment, his eyes on hers. There’s no pity in her gaze, just openness, honesty. She’s not doing this because she thinks he’s weak. She’s just being kind.

“Fine.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everything is fine it's good we're all good right?
> 
> istartedchapter7tonightthingswillgetbetter
> 
> also hey if you catch something that needs fixing, drop me a note in the comments. I have been bare-minimum editing to try and keep the writing momentum, and help would be SUPER awesome.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I spent a lot of time like....angsting over how to frame this chapter. I want to move the action further, but I want to spend 90000 years luxuriating in the character development. Unfortunately, I managed to find a balance and here we are?

Sometimes Hux’s life feels like a series of moments in which Hux is uncomfortable. In which Hux is completely sure there is no way he’ll make it to the next moment, even. In which he is silently pleading for time to speed up and slow down, perhaps at the same time. 

This is one of those moments. The car is quiet except for the ridiculous Christmas music Rey has turned on in an attempt to dispel the awkward tension. Except for...in so doing, Rey has only managed to make it a million times worse, and now Hux’s distraught inner monologue has crappy background music. 

His fingers itch to smooth over his hair, to pinch the crease in his pants, to clean his glasses. To fix something, to clench around the steering wheel, to dig themselves into his eye sockets and just….

It’s too short of a drive and too long all at once. 

Rey’s pulling into his parking spot, she’s getting out of the car. She walks him into the apartment building, shooting a nervous glance towards Mitaka’s door. Her hand is cold on his arm, he can somehow feel the chill of it through his suit jacket and shirt. Ben is behind them, a shadowy sort of protector, maybe. 

Just when Hux is sure nothing else can go wrong in one day, Mitaka’s door swings open and the man himself pokes his head into the hallway. 

“What’s going on?” 

“We’re fine.” Ben says, and Mitaka starts as he sees Ben walking behind Rey and Hux. Ben is rather large, to be fair, Hux thinks. But the expression of shock quickly changes as he realizes that Rey is holding Hux’s arm. 

“Is that your boyfriend?” He asks, coming to stand in front of them. Ben moves forward so that he’s standing with his chest touching Rey’s shoulders. 

“Yes, and we’re hoping to be able to get to our apartment in peace.” Ben says. His voice rumbles almost alarmingly close to Hux’s ear. In the context, however, it’s comforting. 

“You’ll get there; right now I’d like an introduction! Size up the competition, if you know what I mean?” 

For once, Hux is grateful rather than annoyed that he’s dressed smart for a family event. He straightens, squaring his shoulders and drawing on the few extra inches he has over Mitaka. There’s a moment of silent combat between them but Hux is unworried. He knows that his features make him seem cold and imposing at times. It’s a fact he takes advantage of, when he needs to. Now is a time when he needs it, so he musters all the spite inside himself. He looks down the sharp line of his nose, narrowing his eyes, steeling his gaze. 

It works. Mitaka’s shoulders slump a little, but he tries to look brave anyway. 

“I’m Hux.” 

“Hux? That doesn’t seem like a real name.” 

“It is.” 

“Well, then. And you’re Rey’s boyfriend?” 

“I am.” 

“I never figured your type to be redheads, ay Rey?” At this Mitaka slides his gaze over to Rey with a grin that’s half-heartedly cheeky.

“Oh? Am I missing something? Did you—are you friends?” Hux says, looking at Mitaka directly. 

Ben scoffs. “Like Rey would ever _date_ this guy, honestly Hux.” 

“That’s right. Because she’s been dating me.” Hux says. 

“What are you trying to say?” Mitaka says, and he puts his hands on his hips! Hux resists the urge to laugh at the childishness of such a gesture. 

“Believe me, I’m not trying to say anything covert. If I were going to say something to you that seemed nasty, I would make myself perfectly clear. For instance, if I were going to imply that you have some sort of problem in your head that makes you completely incapable of understanding when you’re being an idiot, I would skip the implication and just say that I think you’re an idiot. Now, if you are quite satisfied with yourself, I’ll thank you to please stop harassing my girlfriend every time she passes your door, and mind your own business.” 

Mitaka’s face goes pale, and he opens his mouth to reply. His eyes tighten and his jaw shakes, but he says nothing, and Hux, Rey and Ben pass by and make their way up the stairs to the apartment. 

Hux is drained. He knows he’s strong, but putting on a good face, drowning in memories, and then dealing with a low-life like Mitaka is a lot to put on one plate. 

He’s on the couch? Rey is putting a warm mug into his hands, he’s drinking it and shifting to accommodate the warmth of her next to him. Ben’s on his other side. 

“Hux?” Rey says. 

He turns to look at her, noting from this close angle, the freckles sprinkled across her nose and the tops of her cheeks. They’re the same honey brown as her eyes, and they make her face and eyes look warm. 

“You don’t...have to talk about it, but if you want to, you can.” 

No. The memory will stay his. He can’t, won’t tell that. 

Ben clears his throat and puts a warm hand on Hux’s leg. “I think. I think if Rey is going to keep doing this for you, you need to tell us about what happened.” 

Hux nods and takes a drink from the mug. It’s tea—something soft and slightly sweet. Hux doesn’t do sweet, but this is...it’s nice. 

“My father...had an affair. It was about 5 years after my parents were married, they’d been trying to have a baby, they couldn’t and…..well.” 

Rey nods her head, making a face somewhere between a grimace and a pout. 

“She was working in their house, as a maid. Cleaning. My father insisted that...I would be raised in his house. He fired her and took me in. Made my mother raise me as if I were her own son.” Hux lets out a humorless chuckle. “She did it better than he did. My brother was born just a couple of years later, by accident.” 

“Have you ever...met your...the woman?” Ben says. 

Hux shakes his head. “Never.” 

“Oh! That’s—does that ever make you feel sad?” Rey says. 

Hux scoffs, almost choking on the tea. “No. As if I need another person in my life to make me feel like I’m not good enough.” 

“In my opinion, you’re probably better off with fewer family members.” Ben says. 

“Ben!” Rey says. 

Hux shrugs. “She was working as a maid in my father’s house. How could she afford the fees for a custody battle? I imagine he probably catered to her sense of motherly selflessness and wove some sob story about how he could give me a better life than she could have.” 

Ben’s hand is still on his leg when Rey suddenly jumps up. He can feel Ben’s fingers clench in a moment of panic before she speaks. 

“That’s what—that’s what Robbie was talking about, wasn’t it?” she cries. “That little….oh!” 

Hux nods. “Can’t ever pass up a chance to put me in my place. Beneath him. Where I belong.” 

“That’s idiotic. You’re way more successful than Robbie ever will be!” Ben says, shaking his head. “He only says that because he wants to feel like he’s better than you, because he knows he isn’t.” 

Hux’s brow furrows, his lips spreading in a grimace. “You don’t think I know that?” he bites, “You don’t think I know what I’ve fought for?” 

Rey stomps her foot. “And your father thinks you’re not good enough because of that?” 

Hux blinks, slowly. “I didn’t say that.” 

“You didn’t have to. He’s so horrible to everyone.” 

Hux is silent. The words echo in his head, _thin as a slip of paper, and just as useless_. He’ll never outrun them, no matter how much he accomplishes, how far he goes. 

“Hux?” Rey asks, her voice soft and low. He looks up. “Do we have to ever go back to another one of your family functions ever again?” 

“Yes, unfortunately. As believable as it would be to tell everyone you dumped me when you found out I was an outcast, I’m not sure it would quite do the trick.” 

Rey shakes her head. “I don’t mean that, I’ll finish that for you. I mean...do _you_ ever have to go back?”

Ben barks out a laugh. “Oh, can you imagine?” 

Once his eyes have rolled forward from where they’d escaped to the back of his head, Hux trains them on Ben with a steely, unamused gaze. 

“Would they disinherit you?” Rey asks. 

At this Hux audibly scoffs. 

“Like it would even matter!” Ben says. He’s still laughing. “Hux is plenty successful enough on his own.” 

“Then what?” Rey says. And then, her eyes widen, lips parting, at the very moment Hux speaks. 

“It’s my—” 

“Mother. Your mother.” she says. “Of course. You couldn’t leave her alone.” 

The fact that she understands is a strange comfort to Hux. His mother—the woman who stood by and watched as his father insisted on bringing the evidence of an affair into their home, the woman who isn’t even his mother by birth—has been the only comforting touch in his life. 

It would break her heart if he left. 

“Family is...a gift that you can’t appreciate unless you’ve properly lived without it,” Rey says. She’s watching his face, watching him as he thinks of a time when his mother had fallen asleep in his bed, snuggled up close to him. He’d woken in the middle of the night to find himself curled inside her arms, her lips still pressed to his forehead. 

“You can have mine, by all means.” Hux says, clearing his throat and looking away. “I’d welcome a lesson in appreciation if it meant a break from this madness.” 

Rey looked down and Ben casts a dirty look down at Hux. Hux shifts uncomfortably, reaching up to ruffle the hair on the back of his neck. 

“Well, anyway. We only have a few of these events left until Christmas, and that’s just at my parents’, so don’t worry too much.” 

Ben snorts. “Yeah, that’s lucky. Usually you guys all pick up and go somewhere crazy for Christmas, right?” 

“Yes. From what my mother tells me, they weren’t able to find anywhere this year, so we’re just going to convene at their house for each event instead of being cooped up all together for a number of days.” 

“Wait—you take your whole family on vacation for Christmas?” Rey says, and when Hux looks up, he’s sure there are actual, literal stars in her eyes. 

“Yeah, no, tell her about that one time with the beach house!” Ben says, bouncing himself up onto his heels on the couch, shoving playfully at Hux’s shoulder. As he’s jostled by Ben, Hux rolls his eyes. What a child. 

“A beach house?” Rey breathes. 

“Yeah, and we got hit with a bad winter storm and spent the entire week snowed in. Aunt Ruby was perpetually drunk. It was a disaster. We had everybody crammed into a smaller number of rooms because we thought it would be okay to go outside.” 

Ben chuckles. “I’m so glad you still had cell service that year. I still have those text messages saved.” 

Rey’s eyes are wide. “So we don’t have to stay at your parents’ house, then?” 

Hux shook his head. “No, no. It’d be so awkward, thank heavens everyone is staying at their own houses.” 

There’s silence for a moment and then Ben busts up. “Imagine if you guys had to share a room—or, oh hell, even worse, a bed!”

An uncomfortable beat passes, in which Rey and Hux stare at each other awkwardly, and then Hux tries to laugh and nearly chokes on it. 

“Well, let’s all count our lucky stars that it’s a homebound Christmas this year,” Rey says. 

——————

“What??!” Hux says, sitting up straight between Rey and Ben on the couch. It’s a week or so later, and Hux has just received a phone call from his mother.

 

“Aunt Ruby found a really good deal on a cabin in the mountains! We’re going away for Christmas, Armitage! Rey’s coming, right? I’m so relieved that Ruby found something!” 

“...I’ll have to ask her.” 

“You do that, Armitage, and get back to me so that we can plan the arrangements.” 

“I will, Mother.” Rubbing a hand over his face, Hux murmurs his goodbyes to his mother and then hangs up the phone. 

“What was that?” Rey asks. Her voice is suspicious. Unconcerned and wholly relaxed into the couch, Ben rolls his eyes and flips the channel on the tv. 

“My mother. Apparently we’ve had a Christmas miracle, and Aunt Ruby found us a cabin in the mountains.” 

At this, Ben sits up and guffaws. “Nice! So much for a, what was it you said, Rey? A homebound Christmas?” 

It’s a difficult feat, scowling and sticking her tongue out at Ben at the same time, but Rey certainly does her best to manage it. 

“Good grief!” Hux says. 

“Well, look at it this way,” Ben says, relaxing back into the couch again. “Your super prude parents won’t EVER put you two in the same room. So you’re safe from _that_ awkwardness, at least.” 

“Yes. Silver linings.” Hux agrees. 

——————

“Here’s your room key, dears.” Aunt Ruby says, holding out a single, dirty key. 

“Thank you. And Rey’s?” Hux holds the key gingerly between his thumb and forefinger. 

“Oh! I thought your mother talked to you!” 

“About what?” Rey asks, pushing her way in front of Hux to stare at Ruby. 

“We booked the cabin on such short notice that we didn’t have enough rooms to keep you separate—your father had a fit about that, I’ll have you know Armitage—but anyway, it’s the 21st Century, dears. Nobody has any real illusions about your relationship.” 

With this, Aunt Ruby shoves the key into Hux’s hand, pats Rey’s shoulder, and walks away to foist room keys on other unsuspecting family members. 

For a second Hux panics, thinking he’s got to stop himself from screaming so loudly. It’s a relief when he realizes that he’s only screaming internally. 

For now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OKAY LOOK AT THE FANART THE FANART THAT @STARSHINE-GALAXY DREW FOR THIS! It's the scene from Chapter 5. You know the one. Yeah. That one. [Part one is here!](http://starshine-galaxy.tumblr.com/post/153839248821/his-arms-wind-around-her-waist-pulling-her-body) [Part two is here!](http://starshine-galaxy.tumblr.com/post/153883073561/rey-pulls-away-from-the-kiss-leaving-huxs-mouth) Go give her love and reblogs and stuff <3 she's a wonderful artist. 
> 
> Also, if you're enjoying this, you should probably thank IshaRen (@isharan on tumblr), because she's the only reason I've been keeping up with these consistent updates. ALSO THE END OF THE CHAPTER WAS HER IDEA :DDDDD basically she's the best.


	8. Chapter 8

“If you’re just going to stand there with your mouth open, would you at least open your fist so that I can get the key and put my stuff in our room.” 

Rey holds her hand out and Hux wordlessly drops the key into it. True to her word, Rey takes the key and then snags the handle of Hux’s suitcase and walks off with her duffel bag slung over her shoulder. It’s a full five minutes before Hux can make himself move. 

It’s probably a good idea if they avoid the room as long as possible, Hux reasons, even as a part of him feels horrendously guilty for making Rey carry his ridiculous suitcase up the stairs. At least he brought pajamas. At home he just sleeps in his underwear, like a normal human being. But he’d packed them in a moment of indecision. As a matter of fact, most of his packing choices had been made in a moment of indecision. That was the primary reason he felt guilty for letting Rey carry it up the stairs in addition to her own bag. 

Hux is still standing in the entryway when Rey comes bounding down the stairs, an annoyed expression on her face. 

“So, apparently Aunt Ruby gave us the wrong key or it doesn’t work or something, because I couldn’t get it to open. I left our stuff by the door, I figure if we can’t get this sorted I’ll just pick the lock when we have to go to bed.” 

Hux nods, and then he can hear his mother’s voice drift in from a room down the hall. Nervously, he passes his hand over the back of his head. 

“We should probably go find everybody.” 

“Yeah.” 

The Lodge was a labyrinth, designed to host a large number of people while still allowing them to have minimal social contact with each other, if necessary. The entire thing is….so much wood paneling, but not the cheap 80’s kind. This stuff is made out of actual wood. There are at least one pair of animal horns on the wall in every room, and some in the hallways. Similarly, this house seems to have been constructed with no thought to environmental impact, as there is a fireplace in almost every room. 

The whole thing has been decorated with a ridiculous attention to festive detail. Holly branches litter the mantel of the fireplaces, wreaths on every door, so many Christmas trees. Almost every room is lit solely by the soft glow of strung white-lights. Hux rolls his eyes harder and harder every time they pass by or through another room. 

“Can you believe we have to spend the next three days in this ridiculous place?” He says, gesturing to another excessive wreath. As they pass, it makes noise, breaks out into song, a ridiculously peppy rendition of a classic christmas song. Hux groans.

“Hey, Mr. Scrooge, some of us enjoy Christmas time.” Rey says. Hux looks over at her, really looks at her for the first time since they arrived. Her cheeks are pink, and the fierce look in her eyes can’t quite hide the stars in them. 

She’s loving this. 

“You actually like all this?” he says, and it’s almost a joke. 

Rey flushes. “Hey! Not many foster parents actually give a crap about all this Holiday stuff. I’ve only ever seen this kind of….warm christmas atmosphere in like...movies and storefronts.” 

She stops right outside the doorway of the room where everyone is congregated, nervously peering in. Hux imagines she’s rather daunted at the prospect of facing everyone in such closed quarter, and he almost offers to let them hide out in a different room until it’s time for bed. It’s a terrible idea, though. Them, alone. Unfortunately, this thought makes the urge to offer even stronger. He resists.

This room is clearly the largest in the lodge. It’s holding most of the members of Hux’s extended family, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents. There’s a big, brightly lit Christmas tree in the middle of the room, the stuff of department store fantasies. The ornaments are color-coordinated and there’s tinsel. It’s just the sort of thing that Rey has always dreamed of, probably. A quick look her way confirms his suspicions. She has stars in her eyes as she moves forward a little, into the doorway.

“Hey, Armie!” Robbie yells, and all eyes shoot to Hux and Rey. Robbie chuckles and Hux can feel Rey awkwardly trying to shrink beside him. 

“Would you look at that?” Aunt Ruby says, and Rey stiffens. 

“She’s right! Mistletoe!” Robbie says, and Hux goes cold. He turns to look at Rey, who is looking at him with one eye closed, her mouth scrunched down into an obvious frown. He looks up, and sure enough, there’s a little bunch of mistletoe hanging from the top of the doorframe. There’s no way they can avoid it, no way they can avoid this moment without unnecessary attention. 

Ben! Ben trusted him to take care of Rey, to avoid taking advantage of her. She’s so much younger than Hux, she doesn’t have any—this is going to start a fire that Hux isn’t sure he can put out. “No kissing!” Ben said. And Hux feels like all he’s been doing with this stupid plan is break that one rule. 

It’s all Rey’s fault. Her fault for having stupidly kissable lips, stupidly dazzling eyes, a stupidly cute laugh, and stupidly warm blush. She’s nearly irresistible, especially now as she tries to look away from Hux, twirling a piece of hair that’s fallen out of her top knot and into her eyes. Nearly irresistible? Ha. Hux doesn’t stand a chance. 

In a moment of decisiveness, Hux reaches down and grabs Rey by the shoulders, dragging her up on her toes against him. Her hands scramble to find purchase on the front of his sweater, and her eyes are wide as he releases her shoulders and takes her face in his hands, much gentler this time. His littlest finger brushes against the soft skin underneath her jaw, and he hopes it’s not just his imagination that has him feeling the pulse fluttering there. 

He nuzzles his face against hers, tracing down the long, straight line of her nose with the tip of his, letting his breath ghost against her lips. She’s trembling, he can feel it, why is he hesitating? The last few inches between their lips feel like miles, and he knows, he knows if he crosses the incomprehensible space that he’ll have opened something and he won’t know how to close it back up.

The tip of his nose rubs back and forth against hers, almost lazily. His cupid’s bow brushes against the corner of her lips and it’s like a spark that falls on dry kindling and ignites, catches, burns instantly. He’s suddenly hungry for her mouth, her kiss, her taste. The tip of her tongue reaches out to trace the fullness of his lower lip before she’s pulling it into her mouth, too soft to be a bite, too soft to be anything but heart-melting. 

It’s only when her fists clench a little too hard into his sweater, pinching the skin beneath a little, that he comes back to himself and realizes that he’s just, essentially, made out with Rey in front of his entire extended family. 

This is a bad sign for the next three days.

Robbie whistles, low and slow, and with the silence broken, a few other Aunts and Uncles let out uncomfortable chuckles. Hux’s father is scowling. His mother’s face is pink under her smile, she’s embarrassed but pleased, for some reason. 

There’s a whine from a small child somewhere in the room and the spell is broken, activity resumes and Cynthia ushers Hux and Rey through the doorway and into the fray, as it were. She’s got a purpose, there’s somebody she’s guiding him towards. They weave in and out of conversations, people pat Hux on the back and grasp Rey’s hand as she passes, and then Hux is standing in front of his brother and sister-in-law. 

Of course. Why wouldn’t his brother be here? Rey will want to meet him. 

“Armitage!” Brendol says. Bren, Hux reminds himself. 

The two of them look as cheerful and healthy as ever. Bren’s red hair shining in the glow of the Christmas lights, his blue eyes twinkling as he smiles broadly. He never does anything any less than broadly. Sarah is his cheerful equal in every way, her blonde hair falling in soft sheets around her rosy cheeks and warm brown eyes, and Hux notices—she’s pregnant, a gently rounded stomach peeking through her dress and cardigan. They’re always the life of the party, and Hux does his best to steer clear of them, when he can. 

_No one is that happy unless they’ve come by it illegally_ , Hux thinks. 

“Hello, Bren. I didn’t know you were coming.” Hux says, attempting to sound polite.

“I never miss Christmas! Now, who is this lovely lady?” Bren turns to Rey and grasps her hands. 

“I’m Rey,” she says, and that grin on her face is suspiciously genuine. 

“Rey! Are you a friend of Armitage’s?” 

“She’s uh, she’s my girlfriend, actually.” Hux says. Rey flushes as Bren’s face splits with the most dazzling smile Hux has ever seen Bren give. What is he playing at? Flirting with his—well, she’s not his girlfriend but Bren doesn’t know that! 

“Oh, Armitage. She’s beautiful. And kind, and polite, and smart, I hear from….well, everyone. I always knew you’d find a girl to be your equal.” 

Hux raises an eyebrow, and Rey elbows him. “That’s really too kind,” she says. “I hope I don’t disappoint!” 

“Nonsense. No one has anything less than glowing words to say about you, dear.” Bren says. “This is my wife, Sarah.” 

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Rey.” Sarah says. “We’ve all heard so much about you. Hux, it’s lovely to see you again.” Sarah hugs them both tightly and Hux thinks his eyes might pop out of his head. For such a tiny, pregnant, blonde woman, she has a horrendously tight grip. 

While Sarah is accosting the two of them, two tiny girls with the same cornsilk-blonde hair as their mother run up and grab Hux’s legs. They’re dressed in matching red dresses and tiny, polished Mary Janes. 

“Uncle Armitage!” they yell in unison. Hux reaches down to pat their heads stiffly. 

“This is Rey, dears. Rey—these are the twins, Aoife and Siobhan. They’ve just turned 6 years in October.” 

“Rey!” One of them shouts. “Are you going to marry Uncle Armitage? Daddy said you’re going to marry Uncle Armitage.” 

Rey blinks a few times as Hux’s entire nervous system melts into his toes. This is why he’s never having children. Ever. 

“I’m—we’ve just—” Rey stammers. 

“OH-kay, girls.” Bren says, patting their shoulders and steering them away. 

“You love him right? You haveta love him, Daddy says. He’s the best uncle.” The other twin says over her shoulder as Bren attempts to push them away.

“Girls!” Sarah says. But the twins don’t move; they’re waiting for Rey to speak. 

“I—uh. I do.” Rey says, and her face is very pink. Not that Hux notices, because he’s too busy planning his escape from the country. “I love him very much, don’t worry. I’ll take very good care of your Uncle.” 

Hux almost dies of fright and embarrassment when her hand slips into his. 

The twins smile and then allow themselves to be shooed away by their father. 

Bren has a goofy smile on his face, and Hux has to fight the intense urge to roll his eyes. “Armitage, you’ve got a good one here.” Bren says, turning to put his hand on Rey’s shoulder. “Does he love you well enough back?” he asks her, a mock-serious look on his face. 

Rey goes pink again, her hand clenching in his before relaxing. There’s no mistaking the mirth in Bren’s voice, even Sarah scoffs and hits his shoulder. Hux wants to whisper into Rey’s mind, wishes there was such a thing as telepathic communication, because if there were he’d assure her that she doesn’t need to answer such a ridiculous question. His brother’s just trying to get a rise out of him. 

“N—Not nearly as well as I’d like, most times.” Rey says with a wry grin, and Hux’s jaw drops open. It’s his turn to go pink, though he’s so hot in the ears he’s sure they’re closer to red than the delicate, ever-so-feminine shade of pink Rey had managed to turn just a few moments ago. 

Bren roars with laughter, bending over and slapping his knees. The ruckus interrupts the flow of noise in the room, and everybody’s watching Bren lose it while Sarah chuckles and Hux renews his internal wish for the ground to open up and swallow him whole. 

“That was funny, Rey! I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time, I need a drink. Let’s move it to the kitchen so I can make us drinks.” 

Hux reluctantly follows, hating the way Rey sticks close to Sarah and Bren, asking them questions and just...generally getting along with them better than he’d ever managed in his life. 

The kitchen is just through the doorway of the den, and Rey and Hux find themselves attempting to squeeze through at the same time. Sarah laughs as she watches, and when they stop and look at her, Hux with dread, and Rey with a quizzical face, Sarah only points upward. 

Mistletoe. Hux doesn’t have a way to prove it, but he’s pretty sure Cousin Robbie is behind the overabundance of strategically-placed poisonous foliage. 

Rey’s eyes are sparkling, her smile is wide and genuine as she looks at him. Petrified, Hux leans in and leaves a tiny peck on her lips. 

Bren scoffs. “Not as well as she’d like, indeed! I saw the way you kissed her over there, you can do better than that!” 

Swallowing hard and silently praying for death or some similar form of release from this hell, Hux shakes his head. 

“Oh, don’t be shy.” Sarah says, winking. “Just wait until we’re all drunk after the kids go to bed, I’m sure you’ll see worse from Aunt Ruby and Uncle Scott!” 

Rey rolls her eyes as Hux’s face pales. She reaches forward and grabs Hux by his cheeks, her hands warm on his cool skin, and presses her lips to his, firmly. Immediately, she’s deepening it, pulling his mouth open and sliding her hands back so that only her thumbs are still touching his face. He’s reluctant, but he follows her lead, relenting and allowing her to taste and explore as she will. 

When Rey pulls away and wipes the side of Hux’s mouth off with a thumb, Bren laughs. Hux doesn’t think he’s ever heard his brother laugh this much in his presence. 

“Atta girl! Take what you want.” Bren says, and Rey nods, pushing past Hux into the kitchen. 

 

“I need a drink,” Hux says, to no one in particular, though it earns him a sympathetic smile and a pat on the shoulder from Sarah. 

The rest of the evening goes as well as Hux expected, he supposes. Rey has been steadily making friends with every single one of his family members, sharing jokes and witty comments with each of them in turn. Even Robbie, Hux notes with disgust. 

There are no less than three more mistletoe incidents, and they get more and more risqué the drunker Rey gets (Bren and Sarah have been surreptitiously refilling her glass every time it nears empty). As a protection from exactly that sort of behavior, Hux refuses any and all alcohol, opting for the children’s eggnog and apple cider. The sobriety just allows him to feel the full effects of Rey’s increased exuberance. 

During the first of the three incidents, Rey tries to dip him and instead drops him, much to the amusement of...the entire room. She doesn’t let that stop her, using his defenselessness as permission to climb over him and kiss him with impressive gusto. Bren high-fives her when she finishes and helps Hux up. 

The second is during an adult-only (post-children’s bedtime) game of Charades, and the strip of paper Rey and Hux have drawn just says “mistletoe,” prompting Rey to, without warning, jump into Hux’s arms and kiss him soundly and dramatically. Complete with gross, exaggerated kissing noises. The opposite team, Stephanie and Robbie, guess the phrase immediately, to no one’s surprise. Robbie smirks and Hux narrows his eyes. It’s all a ploy. Hux begins switching Rey’s drinks for water after this incidence, hoping to sober her up before...bedtime.

The third time is a private occurance, after Cynthia has asked Rey and Hux to go get the tray of cookies out of the kitchen. Rey giggles, tipsy, as she pauses in the doorway and points up to the sprig of mistletoe with a wink. Hux rolls his eyes, but he can’t be mad, and he can’t resist leaning in and giving her a sweet kiss on the mouth, smiling into the taste of the brandy on her lips. True to form, Rey ruins the moment by shoving her tongue into his mouth, and Hux resists the urge to gag at the sudden, overwhelming taste of alcohol. 

With a firm hand, he pulls Rey off of him, shaking his head at the completely unsuccessful wink she tries to throw at him. They retrieve the cookies and rejoin the group. Rey is asleep with her head in his lap before the end of the next round of Charades, and Hux politely declines when Stephanie asks if he’d still like to play. 

It’s hours later when everyone goes to bed, and he shakes Rey awake, gently, hoping that she’s feeling a little less tipsy by now. They’ve got to brave the bedroom—which they’ve forgotten to ask for help unlocking, Hux remembers suddenly. 

Rey resists his attempts to rouse her at first, but when Hux pulls her up and into his arms she starts and rubs her eyes, waking finally. Knowing she likely won’t be able to walk very well, Hux opts to carry her up the stairs and to the bedroom instead of letting her down to stumble by herself.

He drops her gently, on her feet, right outside the door of their room, reaching into his pocket for the key. It wouldn’t hurt to try it first, right? Just in case...something’s changed since Rey tried it earlier. 

A rush of gratitude fills him when the lock pops open immediately, and he shoots Rey a frown and a shrug of surprise. She’s not looking at him, instead leaning her head against the wall and closing her eyes. Asleep, probably, Hux thinks. He moves to help her into the room, letting the door swing open with the key still in the knob. 

When they both make it into the room (Rey stumbles. A lot. Sleepy or drunk? Hux hopes sleepy.) and Hux manages to find the light switch, he groans as he finally sees the situation in the light. It’s the longest, most dramatically exhausted groan of his entire life. 

There’s only one, full-sized bed. There’s only one blanket. And from the ridiculous chill in the air, there’s no heat to this room. 

Hux groans again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) super inspired by [this](http://www.filmandtvnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/595541189TB017_BAFTA_Q_A_of-e1449946347783.jpeg) picture
> 
> 2) spent way too much time researching Irish names for the twins
> 
> 3) too much time agonizing over how to write Bren
> 
> 4) Sarah in my head looks like [Karen](http://cdn.movieweb.com/img.news.tops/NEyEmBUD7YarCA_2_b.jpg) from Daredevil
> 
> 5) spent the rest of the time eating puffy cheetos and agonizing about the few lines of embarrassing child dialogue contained herein
> 
> 6) I'm going on a roadtrip for Christmas and I will have LOTS of time to write, hopefully, so there's that


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SCREW YOU AND YOUR FINALS KELLY I UPDATE WHEN I WANT
> 
> .....in other news, bed-sharing.

Rey stands at the foot of the bed for a second before free falling face-first into the mattress. 

“No, no—Rey, pajamas first!” Hux says, grabbing her arms and pulling her back up. “Where are they, in your bag?” 

Nonsense mumbling is all Rey offers before slumping back onto the bed, burying her face in the thin blanket. Hux grumbles, opening her suitcase and gingerly moving articles of clothing aside. His ears go hot when he accidentally grabs a wad of pink lace and he instantly drops it, looking up to see if Rey is watching him. She’s not. He adjusts his glasses nervously and continues to search. The best he can come up with in his careful search is a pair of obscenely tiny shorts and a tank top—the stripes on both are matching, and Hux figures that means they’re probably pajamas. It confirms his suspicions—Rey is completely crazy. Who brings tiny shorts and a tank top to a cabin in the middle of the woods in the winter?

“Rey!” Hux whisper-shouts, pulling her up. “Rey, put your pajamas on so we can get this bed stuff over with.” 

“Soft and warm.” Rey says, petting Hux’s hair. 

“Uh.” Hux puts the pajamas in Rey’s hands. 

“Oh!” Rey says, and then she drops the clothes onto the bed and strips her shirt off right there.

For a second, Hux is ashamed about the screeching noise he makes as he turns around, and then all he can think about is how golden the skin of her belly is, and _does she have a six pack??_ He fights the temptation to turn around and peek again. 

“Whoops!” Rey giggles right before Hux hears a thump. He turns around and immediately closes his eyes. Rey has both legs of her jeans halfway off, the tight parts tangled around her calves. “I think I need help.” Rey says. 

Another groan. Hux refuses to open his eyes. This is so inappropriate, and he will not take advantage of her tipsy-ness. But he doesn’t consider the consequences of his self-induced blindness until his outstretched fingers brush soft skin and his eyes fly open to find that he’s just grabbed her thigh. Rey giggles as he gasps. 

Averting his eyes this time, Hux grabs the bottom of her pants and tugs them down over her feet, one pant leg at a time. When he finishes, Rey slides the shorts up (thankfully disaster-free) and then stands, dropping her discarded clothes on top of the suitcase and flopping back down on the bed. 

“No, Rey. You should get under the covers.” Hux says, lifting his glasses and rubbing the bridge of his nose, exasperated. She makes a sassy noise in response and crawls up the bed towards the pillow. 

Hux looks up at the ceiling, his ears pink. This is the 9th circle of Hell. When he looks back down, she’s under the covers, curled in a ball with her head on the pillow. More hair has come loose from the front of her bun, and he can see it tickling her nose as she breathes in and out. Her eyes are closed, so Hux is pretty sure he can change into his pajamas without her seeing anything if he’s especially speedy. He brought a thin pair of pajama pants and a t-shirt, and he’s cursing himself for not bringing a sweatshirt or something, if only so that Rey could have used it. 

“The hair on your chest is red.” Rey mumbles, and Hux makes an undignified noise and holds the t-shirt over his chest. She’s got one eye open and she’s half-smiling. “You’re not as hairy as I expected.” she says. 

“That’s—none of your. You should close your eyes.” 

“Naw, if it’s okay, I’ll keep watching.” 

Rolling his eyes, Hux turns around to put his shirt on. 

“Your back!” Rey gasps, and Hux rolls his eyes. “So many muscles. Do you work out?” 

“I go to the gym, yes.” Hux says. “I’m going to put my pajama pants on, and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t look.” 

“You’re no fun.” 

“Please?” 

A huge huff. “Fiiiiiiiiine.” 

Hux unbuttons his jeans and pulls them down quickly, folding them neatly before bending over to slip his feet into the pajama pants. 

There’s a low whistle from Rey. “It looks even better _out_ of the jeans!” 

He straightens so quickly that he bangs his knee into the dresser next to the bed, cursing and jerking the pajama pants up over his hips as frantically as he can. When he turns, he shoots Rey an icy glare, but she pays him no mind as she giggles hysterically. 

He gets into bed, rolling away from Rey so that he’s facing the wall. He folds his arms. It’s freezing in here, and this blanket is so thin. 

The giggles stop, finally, and then he can hear Rey moving in the bed. “Hux?” she whispers.

“...yes?” 

“It’s—it’s cold in here, isn’t it?” 

“Yes.” 

“I’m cold.” 

“I apologize.” 

Rey sniffles and then coughs, and Hux’s chest clenches. What if the cold makes her sick? What if she gets sick and dies, and Ben will be so mad and it will be all Hux’s fault. Plus the whole plan will go out the window if Rey is dead!

“Hux?” Rey says. 

“Yes?” 

“Will you—can I snuggle with you?” 

In the pregnant pause that follows, Hux tries to convince himself that it will be innocent. That nothing will happen. That it’s just for Rey, so that she won’t freeze to death in that stupid excuse for a pajama set. 

“Did you fall asleep?” Rey whispers, and in the heavy silence, Hux can hear her trying to sneak across the bed towards him. 

“No.” Hux says. “Yes, come here.” But instead of making her come to him, he meets her halfway in the middle of the bed. For a moment, they’re face to face, on their sides, just breathing. Then Rey slips into the last little bit of space between them, burying her face into the crook of Hux’s neck. He reluctantly wraps one arm around her waist, sliding her a half inch closer. Their legs tangle together, and Hux winces as the prickly skin of her unshaved calves brushes against his, pulling at the long hairs on his legs where his pants have ridden up. 

Where does his right arm go? Currently it’s curled under his head, but he knows from experience that it will fall asleep quickly if that continues for any more than two seconds from now. Slowly, so as to avoid disturbing Rey if she’s sleeping, he slides it down, and then under his pillow. 

Agh. That’s just more weight on top of it. 

“Rey?” He whispers. 

“Yes?” 

“Can I—Can I put my arm under your neck?” 

Bed sheets shuffle as Rey lifts her neck up and Hux slides his arm into the space she’s created for him. She puts her neck back down, this time so her face isn’t buried in his shoulder, and after approximately five seconds Hux realizes that this is Too Straight. His arm is going to lock up _and then_ fall asleep. 

“I can’t do this either. I’m sorry.” 

Rey’s eyes open and a slow smile spreads across her face. “When was the last time you slept with anyone?” 

Hux blanches, his whole body tensing. 

“Oh, you! Of course I didn’t mean it like that. When was the last time you shared a bed with anyone?” 

He scoffs. “When was the last time _you_ slept with anyone?” 

“Ben and I do it all the time.” 

“.......oh.” Hux says. He tries to keep his body relaxed. It’s cool. They’re best friends, they spend a lot of time together. Ben is especially protective. He should have assumed they’d...sometimes…

“Oh my gosh, you idiot.” Rey says. “We don’t _sleep_ together. We share a bed sometimes when I stay over. Ben is like my brother, you sicko.” 

Hux doesn’t say anything, but he can’t hide from Rey when her nose is nearly touching his. 

“You’re awfully uptight, aren’t you? I mean, I knew that, but this is just...awkward, isn’t it?” 

Hux turns his face into the pillow and coughs, and this movement pushes his glasses into his face. He forgot to take them off. Which explains why he can see Rey so clearly. She’s right. This is really awkward. 

“Here, why don’t you move your arm.” Rey says, kindly. Hux pulls it out from under her and then just...leaves it in the air, unsure of where he should put it. Rey giggles and touches a finger to his nose. Without moving her finger off his skin, she slides it up the bridge of his nose and hooks it around his glasses, slowly pulling them down. She finally reaches up with both hands and slides them all the way off, rolling over to set them down at the edge of the bedside table on her side. Hux is cold as she moves away, and then she’s back, and she’s rubbing the spots where his glasses dig into the side of his face, her eyes on his, serious and intense. She’s still a little drunk, though, and they’re a tad bit unfocused. 

“Maybe I should roll over and you can...hug my back?” Hux says, swallowing hard as her fingers continue to rub soothing circles on his temples and then back into his hair. He needs some space. She’s in his space, he can feel her breath on his face. 

“Oh, I don’t know. I like this better, don’t you?” Rey says, leaning her face forward so that her forehead rests against Hux’s. 

“I...Rey.” Hux says. “We shouldn’t.” 

“Where else do you want me to sleep? It’s too cold for either of us to take the floor. It’s too cold for us to sleep in this bed. We’ve got to at least stay together.” 

She pulls the covers up around them so that they reach up over their heads, and it throws her face, which had previously been illuminated by the light of the moon outside and the nightlight on the wall next to the bed, into complete darkness. The suddenness of the darkness makes Hux jump. Rey slides a hand onto his neck.

“Hey. You’re fine, it’s just me.” 

The bed sheets rustle again; Rey moves even closer to Hux. He can feel her stomach pressing against his. Why is her skin so warm? Slowly, as if she were afraid of startling him, she slides both arms up around his neck, which presses them even closer together everywhere. 

“Hux?” She breathes. He can taste the word, the wet heat of the ‘h’ and the clip of the ‘x’. He swallows. 

“Yes?” he says, and he can feel her lips against his as he forms the word. Even with his eyes open, he can’t see her, can only feel her. Her toes on the back of his calves, rubbing. Her fingers drumming lightly against the crown of his head, tendrils of her hair tickling his cheekbones. The phantom sensation of her lips on his, the heat of _almost_ , of _just barely_. 

“I think…” and she doesn’t continue, leaving her breath on his mouth to drive him mad. Hux waits, parting his lips to breathe deeper while the anticipation rises in his chest, aching and itching and making his stomach twist. When they finally press against his, her lips are cool, like water, and Hux is so relieved he relaxes, full-body, into her. His arms come up around her, and he’s delighted and startled to feel the bare skin of her waist where her tank has ridden up. Greedily, he squeezes the soft curves of her waist and clutches her closer. 

This makes Rey gasp into his mouth, deepening the kiss and squirming closer to him. Her arms wind tighter around his neck, locking them in their close embrace. He’s not sure which limbs are his and which are Rey’s. The warmth of her is making him delirious, and still, she kisses him deeper, hungrier, with less and less finesse and more and more passion. 

Hux is just managing to squash the voice of Ben in the very back of his head, just starting to enjoy the feel of Rey so close and warm in his arms when her lips go slack on his and her breath deepens. 

She’s totally asleep. She fell asleep mid-makeout. Hux would be offended if he could actually catch his breath. Oh well. He knew she was drunk when they got to the room; at least she didn’t puke on him, Hux thinks, with a shudder. Having the only blanket on the bed out of commission due to alcohol barf would be miserable. 

Little miss dead-weight over here is still laying in the position she’d fallen asleep in, her arms around his neck, legs wrapped between his. His arms are around her waist, and he knows that even if he wanted to, he couldn’t fall asleep like this. She’s squishing his arms, they’ll fall asleep instantly. A deep breath in, hold for a few seconds, let it out. Then Hux shifts, carefully, slowly, pulling his right arm out from under Rey, hoping he won’t wake her. When he’s freed his arm, he unwinds her arms from around his neck and eases her onto her back as gently as he can. Dead weight is hard to maneuver with any sort of finesse. Hux fervently hopes he hasn’t dislocated any of her shoulders or elbows. Once she’s on her back, he cuddles closer to her, sharing his body heat, keeping the covers pulled over their heads and tucked securely around them. 

When their body heat has had a chance to warm up the bed, Hux feels quite comfortable snuggled up to Rey. He closes his eyes but sleep doesn’t come, his brain is too aware of the smell of her all around him, the feel of her bare limbs against his fingertips, her breath on his cheek. A dangerous thought creeps into his mind, like a stray tendril of smoke on a cold day, wisping and curling as it lodges itself into the deepest recesses of his dreams. 

_What if this was real?_

It makes him laugh, silently of course, but no less dry and bitter for that fact. In fact, his internal Hux is having a bona fide bitter laughing fit, slapping his knees and snorting for several minutes before standing up with a fierce glare, directed at external Hux. 

_You were the one who insisted this be fake._

Hux curses himself, feeling a little bit of the shared heat between him and Rey leech out. Only metaphorically, of course. She’s breathing too heavily to let any of the heat dissipate, but Hux’s stomach goes slightly cold. He hadn’t known anything about Rey before this started—he’d just needed someone to help him get through the Holidays and get his family off his back for a while. How was he supposed to know that she was kind and sweet and funny, that she’d get along great with his family? Better, even, than he did. He couldn’t have known that he’d grow to….feel affection for her. 

_Don’t get all maudlin, we both know she doesn’t have any feelings for you._

This point….internal Hux has him. There is no evidence that Rey is interested in anything beyond some friends-with-benefits sort of thing, which Hux is not down for, despite all the evidence to the contrary. He can’t continue to kiss her when they did not share the same feelings towards each other. Beyond his own feelings, which are practically negligible at this point, Hux knows (kissher _kissher_ endless _endless_ his heart cries)...Rey is quite a bit younger than he and Ben. She has no way of knowing what she wants at this point in her life—how could she feel any sort of real regard for Hux? Ben knows her best, and Ben had told him not to mess with her feelings. Hux has to be careful with her, and taking care of her means making sure that she doesn’t throw herself at him when…when there’s no real possibility of anything between them. 

_Stick to the plan, buddy. That’s the best hope for you._

Yes, the plan. In two days, she’s supposed to brutally dump him in front of his whole family so that they’ll quit bothering him about dating and...marriage. This is for the best. Then she can just go back to being Ben’s best friend, someone Hux interacts with on occasion when he leaves his room to use the restroom or eat. 

Except. There’s a flash of Bren’s face as Rey yells at him in front of everyone. Bren is disappointed, betrayed, and then Rey catches a glimpse of the look on Bren’s face and she is….hurt. She’s never had a family to disappoint. Hux can’t allow her to fall in love with his family (which she has, that much is clear) and then ask her to just….push them all away. She deserves better. 

_But this can’t go on forever._

Oh, heavens no. Hux knows this. A line has to be drawn. He just—

Rey shifts suddenly with a delicate snuffle, curling back onto her side and into Hux’s arms, rubbing her cheek against his chest. Her knees come up, settling into his stomach. Hux hesitates for a moment before curling his left arm around her shoulders. She’s far enough below his shoulders that his right arm isn’t in any danger of falling asleep. This position is perfect, actually. He can wrap his warmth around her, shielding her bare limbs from any chill and cocooning them both in the security of the blanket. 

Suddenly all of his limbs feel heavy and thick, and in a rush, sleep comes, washing over him like a great wave, pulling him in until he’s lost among the tides of dreams. 

In his dreams, he is warm and everything is soft and glowing white. Waves of brown...hair? They thread through his fingers, pearly teeth, gleaming in a smile directed towards him and no one else. There’s the barest pressure on his forehead, fingertips and then lips, perhaps. Murmuring into his ear. He can understand the words but when he tries to grasp them in his fingers they slip away like water. A kiss to his ear, to his jaw, to his lips, and then his throat, a tender press of lips to his adam’s apple. More murmuring, but it’s lost to him as well. The rest of his dreams pass in a sunny, silken haze.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter was weird, because like...the first part I was all "1901" by Phoenix, and the second part I was all "Saving" by Cody Fry. Holy Hell I wrote 3000 words of JUST bed-sharing, didn't I?
> 
> And I gave myself a juice mustache because I was writing so frantically and paying zero attention to the bright red drink in my hand.


	10. Chapter 10

It’s disgustingly bright when Hux wakes, and too warm. So warm that he can feel the stickiness of Rey’s skin against his where their pajamas have ridden up under the blankets. 

Wait.

Rey’s skin? Rey? In the bed with him! He scrambles out from under the blankets, and it hurts to pull himself away when their skin is stuck together so stubbornly. 

This is how Rey finds him when she wakes—cowering near the dresser on his side of the bed, a blanket clutched to his chest. 

“What are you doing all the way over there, silly?” she says, rubbing her eyes. Hux has never seen her first thing in the morning. It’s a terribly endearing sight and he is undone, his heart itching uncomfortably hot while she yawns and stretches. The sheet hangs around her waist and he can see all the muscles in her shoulder flex and release as she reaches up towards the headboard, a small whimpering noise in the back of her throat making Hux go pink around the ears. 

“I uh, I shouldn’t have let this happen.” Hux says, clearing his throat and releasing his iron grip on the blanket. It sags in his grip a little. 

“What do you mean?” 

“This….in the bed. It’s improper, and I should never have required it of you, per the arrangement.” 

Rey rolls her eyes at him and rolls over onto her stomach. “It’s not like you did anything... _improper_ ….Hux.” 

“And how would you know? Speaking of that, how are you not hungover right now??!” Hux exclaims, dropping the blanket altogether. 

Rey giggles, rolling onto her back again and looking at Hux upside down, reaching out to tug at the leg of his pajama pants. Hux scoffs at her and moves away from her grabby hands. “You’ve never come out with Ben and I, or you’d know,” she says, running a hand through her loose hair. “I handle my liquor _extremely_ well.” 

“I see that now.” Hux stares at her for a moment before shaking his head. “Anyway, you seem to have kept yourself from freezing to death, even in those stupid pajamas.” 

Rey looks down with a wide grin. “I don’t actually recall putting these on last night, you know?” 

Hux blushes red, so embarrassed to be caught. 

“By the way, good choice. These are the cutest pajamas I brought—it’s almost as if you knew I’d want to have good pajamas for a night in bed with an attractive guy. Thanks for that.” And then Rey winks at him, a flirty, ridiculously, stupidly seductive move for so early in the morning. 

Hux doesn’t say anything. What is there to say? It would just be more of the same, especially after his internal dilemma the night before. There’s no place for any sort of the flirting that she wants from him. 

Rey seems to feel his shift in mood and frowns. Hux takes this opportunity to clear his throat and say what he’s been thinking. “Um, I actually want to ask you…” 

Rey flips over, pulling herself to a kneeling position. “Yes?” 

“When we made the deal,” he says, “I told you it would end at Christmas.” 

Rey nods solemnly. “That’s tomorrow.” 

“Yes. It is.” 

“So...I just dump you?” Rey frowns into the middle distance, and it tugs at Hux’s heart. He can’t let this happen. He doesn’t know what he’s going to do, but he can’t let this happen.

“In effect, yes.” 

“Okay. Anything specific I should include in my theatrical rejection?” 

“Naw, maybe something about how I’m married to my work and I wouldn’t ever have time to pay you enough attention anyway.” 

“....that seems oddly specific.” 

“My family is very good about making their feelings known.” 

“How awful.” 

Hux shrugs. “It’s just...how things go. It’s been most of my life, at least...since Bren got married.” 

“You know how I feel. Having some family is better than no family. And I think yours is...they’re a lot sometimes, but I like them.” 

Hux winced. “Well, they certainly like you. Better than me, I think.” 

“Nonsense, Hux. I’m sure they’re very proud. I know they’re very fond.” 

Hux doesn’t say anything, just takes a deep breath. “If you need a shower, it’s just through that door, I imagine. Unless that’s a closet. But I’m pretty sure it’s a bathroom. I think they put bathrooms in all of the rooms.” 

Rey raises her eyebrows. “Okay. Well, are you sure it’s okay for me to go first?” 

Hux looks at her, in all of her tiny-pajama’d glory. He swallows hard and replies. “Yes. Please, in fact.” 

“Alright, then.” 

While Rey showers, Hux spends some much needed alone time, pep-talking himself into lasting the day, agonizing over her skin on his during the night, and trying and failing not to think about Rey in the shower. Soap. Water. 

Hux blushes and buries his head in the pillows. 

Not too much later (but much too soon, in Hux’s opinion), Rey comes out of the bathroom, fresh and clean, her cheeks still pink from the heat of the water. Her hair hangs around her face in damp tendrils, and she’s wearing a burgundy sweater and khaki pants. 

He swallows and blinks and takes his turn. 

It’s a million years later that they finally make it outside, decked in heavy snow gear (thank heavens, it hides nearly all of Rey’s skin), ready to sled or...whatever it is that people do for fun out in the snow, if such a thing is actually possible, Hux thinks. He hates the wet and cold, heaven forbid they be combined. 

Rey takes Siobhan’s hand in her right hand and Aoife's in her left, walking them over to the top of the sledding hill. They’ve just finished rolling the balls for a snowman, and Rey has left Hux with a hat, scarf, carrot, and a small assortment of stones to serve as the mouth and eyes. He’s also been instructed to find sticks for his arms. 

He wraps the stupid scarf around the dumb snowman’s neck. What is the point of putting a scarf on a frozen entity? And anyway, even if the snowman ( _Ben_ , Hux thinks, _I’ll call him Ben for now_ ) were cold, a scarf certainly wouldn’t help him any. He’d need a good coat and perhaps mittens? Hux closes one eye and judges approximately what the center point of Ben’s face is. Then he shoves the carrot in as deep as he can manage, looking around guiltily when it sinks in too far and almost breaks the head apart. 

“Sorry Ben,” he whispers, patting snow back into place around the carrot. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out two of the biggest stones and carefully places them in the spot where Ben’s eyes should go. 

He rolls the remainder of the rocks in his gloved palm for a moment. 

“Naw, I think I’m going to leave you mouthless for a while. Then you can’t sass back and lecture me any about Rey.

“I suppose I should find you some arms, huh? Ha! If you don’t have arms you can’t punch me for breaking your one rule.” 

That last part comes out a little louder than Hux had intended, and he glances back towards the group nervously. He’s talking to a snowman. This might qualify as crazy, or at the very least eccentric.

“Which, by the way, was a stupid rule to set. What did you think it would accomplish? All it made Rey want to do was kiss me worse. That girl is trouble. A rebel, if I ever saw one. You say ‘no kissing’ and she hears ‘flirt with death, kiss each other but don’t let me find out’ and Ben, I didn’t stand a chance.” 

He rolls one pebble in between the pads of his thumb and forefinger. He can’t feel the ridges of it through the thick glove but the action of it is still soothing. 

“I like her, you probably already know that.” 

Ben stares back at him, all eyes and nose in a pale face. 

“A lot.” 

The snow-Ben seems to give him almost a mournful gaze. 

“And I don’t think she likes me. I think she just likes that I’m willing to kiss her.” 

Snow-Ben doesn’t have eyebrows, but Hux feels him quirk an eyebrow. 

“I’m serious! I have initiated none of the kisses that happened in private. She’s done that. All of that. She’s not interested in any of the emotional baggage of a relationship. It’s just my body.” 

There’s heavy silence. Snow-Ben’s eyes glint in the sunlight. Huh. Hux thought that comment was at least a little humorous. 

“She loves my family, Ben. And they love her. Bren and Susan have already invited her to come visit them across the country—without me! She couldn’t go without me! They’re not her family.” 

Ben’s look seems obvious this time. 

“Yes, I know. They think they are.” 

The carrot nose twitches, maybe. 

“I know, it’s massively unfair of me to ask her to dump me in front of them. They’ll be mad at her.” 

Impassive eyes. 

“I can’t. I can’t let it go on. It’s unfair to her, and to me. And to my family.” 

Hux begins placing the pebbles in a smiley row below Snow-Ben’s nose, a faint hope that perhaps, he might speak, offer some sort of advice. 

“I have an idea. It might—it might work, but I’ll definitely need your help.” 

Snow-Ben’s mouth is a crooked grin as Hux leans in closer and whispers to the place where Ben’s ear should be. 

He’s feeling confident and, quite frankly, pumped about his plan when a small hand tugs on the bottom of his coat. “Uncle Hux? Are you talking to the snowman?” 

“Of course not,” he replies, smoothing his wet gloves over his forehead. “I was just checking to see that his scarf is properly tied, you know. So he doesn’t catch cold.” 

Aoife quirks an eyebrow, “Uncle Hux, he’s a snowman. He can’t get cold!” 

“You’re so right,” Hux says. He crouches down, casting a mock-wary glance towards Rey and Siobhan, who are making their way over here slowly. “But can I tell you a secret?” 

Aoife nods vigorously. 

“Rey feels that it’s very important our snowman keeps warm. If he caught cold, she’d be very sad, you see?” 

Aoife looks back at Rey. “She thinks he’s real?” 

Hux nods. “And we can’t tell her otherwise, or she’ll be terribly disappointed.” 

Aoife looks thoughtful for a moment. “Where are his arms, Uncle Hux?” 

“Would you like to go find me some?” 

“Oh, yes!” Aoife says. She’s got a tiny bit of her father’s Irish lilt, and Hux can’t help the small smile it brings to his face. She and her sister are a physical manifestation of the future, of Bren’s and Susan’s very being passed down and carried on in the world. He’s never thought of children that way, actually. 

Mostly they’re just wet and loud, he’s always thought. But as he watches Aoife’s braids bounce against her shoulders, the ecstatic set of her shoulders as she takes her sister’s hand and sets off in search of arms for Snow-Ben...he thinks perhaps Rey is onto something. Maybe they’re not so bad. 

“You’ve done quite a bit with the snowman, Hux.” Rey calls as she nears. “We’ve been gone 15 minutes—what have you been doing with him? Writing his entire backstory? He couldn’t possibly be holding a conversation with you because he hasn’t got a whole mouth.” 

Hux blushes. “I was just—making sure it was right for you and the twins!” 

“Sure.” But she winks as she says it, and the girls come running back with sticks for arms. 

“Do we need to name him?” Rey asks. 

Hux coughs and then clears his throat. “I uh—I already did. Ben.” 

“Ben?” Rey said, frowning. 

“Yes.” 

“....Okay.” 

“Let’s go sledding! Rey said you’d come with us!” Siobhan says. 

Hux sighs, heavy and thick. “If Rey said it, I guess. I must.” 

He allows the girls to drag him over to the top of the hill. 

“Let Rey and I show you how first,” Siobhan says, “and then you and Aoife can come after!” 

“Perfect.” Hux says. 

Rey and Siobhan get settled into the sled and then Rey pushes off with her feet. He can hear their squeals of delight as they accelerate down the hill. It’s quite a long hill, Hux thinks. Is it safe? Probably, he reasons. The rest of the parents have been letting their children go up and down this hill all afternoon.

They’re doing fine until the sled catches on something—a rock, a raised bit of snow, a boot, Hux can’t see and really, it all happens too fast for anyone to be sure. Siobhan and Rey flip out of the sled, rolling and tumbling down the hill after the sled until they come to a stop at the very bottom. Someone (probably Susan or Hux’s mother or really, any one or all of Hux’s female relatives) screams, but Hux is a man of action. His panic does not cause him any delay.

He situates his sled and gets on, pushing off and tucking his limbs in to gain speed, steering himself a safe distance away from the two figures lying in the snow. He tosses the sled away and runs towards them, shouting Rey’s name. 

“Rey! Can you hear me? Are you alright?” he yells as he skids to a stop on his knees in the snow in front of Rey and Siobhan. She’s face-down, and Siobhan is next to her, face-up. Siobhan’s eyes are open wide and she’s staring at Hux with a bewildered expression on her face. 

“Are you okay, Siobhan?” Hux asks. Siobhan nods. “Do you think you can sit up?” he asks. She flexes her limbs and then nods, making the motions to sit up. It looks difficult, but only because of the restricting bulk of her snow wear. She rubs her eyes against the blinding white of the snow and lifts both arms up towards her parents to let them know she’s okay. Hux can hear a distant, but grateful sob from Susan.

“Rey?” Hux says, touching her back, her neck, her cheek. He doesn’t want to roll her over in case she has a back injury. “Can you hear me? Can you wake up, please?” He shuffles around her in the snow to see if he can spot her eyes. As he nears her face, there’s a sound, her hands under her in the snow scrabbling for traction or something, and then Hux is grunting as all of Rey’s weight slams into him at once, and she’s—is she _giggling_? 

Hux’s fury is blinding. 

“Rey!” He shouts. “I thought you were seriously hurt!” 

She pushes up on his chest so she can look him in the eyes. “Oh hush, you big drama queen. I’m fine. A silly spill down the sledding hill couldn’t do me in!” 

“You pretended to be injured!” 

“Well...no. I never said ‘Oh, Hux, I’m injured please rescue me!’ In fact, I’ll have you know the last roll down the hill knocked the breath out of me and that’s why I was laying there.” 

“Can you breathe?” Hux says, panicked again. 

“Yes! I’m fine.” Rey laughs. 

“Don’t do that again. We’re going inside.” 

“Hux!” Rey says, “Don’t be a baby.” 

“I’m not being a baby, you can’t be out here in case you’ve got a concussion or something.” 

“I don’t have a concussion.” 

“Still. Please come in for me.” 

Rey rolls her eyes. “Fine.” 

She stands, with no difficulty whatsoever, and holds her hand out for Siobhan. They trudge up the hill, a grumbling Hux behind them. 

“Hux! You saved them!” Aunt Ruby says, grasping his arm in her pink mitten. “It was so brave, how you just set off in that little sled. Rey is lucky to have such an attentive man, to be sure.” 

Hux cringes. “Yes, well, Siobhan was down there with her, and I knew Rey might...need help.” 

“Oh, Hux.” Aunt Ruby says. It seems like she might continue, but Hux intervenes quickly.

“I’d better take them both inside to make sure they’re okay.” He says. 

“Yes, of course! Go finish your hero duties!” Aunt Ruby winks, rubbing her red lips together, almost salaciously. 

With a roll of his eyes, carefully facing away so Aunt Ruby doesn’t see, Hux does as she says. 

After reassuring Bren and Susan, he tucks Rey and Siobhan in on the couch underneath snuggly blankets and heads into the kitchen. It’s been stocked, (thanks to his mother, who undoubtedly has over-prepared for every family event in her life) and he has no trouble finding what he needs for two mugs of homemade hot chocolate. 

Rey and Siobhan sip on them slowly as Hux sits in front of them, carefully watching for signs of….concussions, any sort of distress, really. Siobhan cuddles close to Rey and listens as Rey tells her stories, stories of magic and endearingly courageous characters. Siobhan giggles in all the right places as Rey does the silly voices and whispers at the climactic parts. 

Even Hux forgets to watch for concussions, instead getting caught up in the mystery and wonder in her voice. 

They gather for dinner and Siobhan stays close to Rey, starry-eyed and enamored. Hux can’t help feeling the same. Maybe it’s just because it’s Christmas Eve. Magic is everywhere, after all. The snow is soft and white outside, glowing in the bright moonlight. All the children are whispering together about Santa who’s sure to come that night while they’re sleeping, eyes wide as they dream of what he’ll leave for them under the tree. 

After dinner, the adults send all the children off to bed, dressed warm and snug in their Christmas pajamas. They stay up for a while longer, parents arranging gifts and stockings for the inevitably early morning. There is no alcohol tonight. None of them want to be hungover on such a wretchedly miniscule amount of sleep. Rey and Hux just watch, Rey tucked under Hux’s arm comfortably. 

Near the end of the night, Hux excuses himself for a moment, finding the front door of the lodge and ducking out, wrapping his left arm around his ribs to guard against the cold. His right hand pulls his phone out of his pocket and dials a number, shaking a little as he tucks the phone up to his ear. 

“Hello?” the voice on the other side of the phone says, confused and a bit groggy. 

“Ben?” Hux says. “I need...well, I need help.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SURPRISE! I figured with all the horrible things that 2016 has hit us with in the last few days...we could use some happiness. Hopefully this helped a little. I'll continue writing in the next week or so to finish it out before everyone goes back to school and work!


	11. Chapter 11

This time in the bedroom, there’s no waffling or grumping from Hux. He and Rey take turns with their pajamas in the bathroom, and Rey doesn’t make even one sarcastic quip about him changing in front of her. She seems to know that something’s up. Hux takes his glasses off and moves towards the bed.

They settle in bed, automatically gravitating together, Hux on his back, Rey tucked into the crook of his arm with her cheek in the triangle of space between his shoulder and collarbone. It’s pleasantly warm in the room now, funny enough, but sleeping farther apart is not an option for either of them. Almost without a thought, his hand reaches over to stroke the hair on the crown of her head and she makes a small, contented noise in the back of her throat. The dark, which had felt so heavy the night before, is like a soft, warm blanket draped over them both. If it never leaves, Hux never has to face the next day. 

“Hux?” Rey whispers. 

There’s a beat of time where Hux contemplates feigning sleep, but ultimately, he can’t. 

“Yes?” 

“Who...who did you call tonight? When you left?” 

Hux does his best to stay relaxed. 

“...no one. It was for work.” 

Rey shifts, rolling over to rest her chin on his chest. The air from her breath hits Hux’s throat in little puffs. “No it wasn’t.” 

“Yes, it was. I’d missed a call while we were outside and I waited until a quiet moment to go and call back.” 

“No boss is mean enough to call on Christmas Eve.” 

“Mine is.” 

Rey huffs and looks him square in the eye for a stern few seconds and then flops back over to nestle against Hux again. 

“What did your boss want?” 

“His secretary misplaced some documents I sent to him. I need to resend them at my earliest convenience.” 

“That seems….very urgent.” 

“This client is needy and very particular.” 

“Uh-huh.” 

It isn’t exactly a lie, Hux reasons to himself. He had gotten an email to the same effect earlier that day, but it was nowhere near the level of urgency that he’s making it out to be. Thankfully, Rey seems to be content with his non-answers and lets it go. 

He closes his eyes and tries not to fall asleep. This closeness, the intimacy, however false it might be must not be taken for granted. Lilacs in her hair, the smell of her shampoo, Hux knows (he’d checked her products out in the shower while he was in there, okay? She didn’t have much—just a shampoo and a body wash, in matching scents) drifts lazily around his nose, delicate and beautiful. Rey’s fingers fiddle with the collar of his shirt for a moment, the chill of her fingers shocking him when they graze his neck, then she stills. Her breathing evens out and Hux is sure she’s fallen asleep. After waiting a moment to revel in her stillness and warmth, he nudges his cheek against her hair and quiets his mind. 

“Hux?” her voice is small and a little hoarse. She must be very close to sleep.

“Yes, Rey?” he murmurs back, stroking her cheek softly. 

“Merry Christmas.” The words are slurred, a little, and the ‘s’ on the end of ‘christmas’ lingers adorably as she falls asleep. 

“Merry Christmas, dear.” Hux whispers back, into her hair. He’s asleep in a matter of moments, and it is, unsurprisingly, the best sleep of his life. 

****

Hux wakes gradually, pleasantly. His nose tickles a bit, but it’s the only mild irritant in his blissful state of mind. When his eyes flutter open finally, he realizes that Rey’s hair is mussed and somehow pooled directly in his face. 

He’s lying on his stomach, his face turned to the side, and Rey is on her side facing him. His arm is flung over her, the tips of his fingers tucked into the bare skin of her back. The entirety of Rey’s hair is in her face, and by extension, in his face. Inhaling proves to be a huge mistake; tiny strands of hair make their way up his nose and into his mouth, and the ensuing sputtering manages to wake Rey. 

“Mmmmmm, whass….go...mmm…” she murmurs

Hux is still spitting hair out, doing his best to breathe again. 

Rey sits up suddenly, which does the trick. Hux coughs once and shakes his head. 

“Are you okay?” Rey says, straightening and folding her legs in front of her, leaning down to touch Hux’s face. 

“I’m fine, I just—your hair in my throat.” 

“I’m so sorry, usually I try to remember to put it up before I go to bed, honestly, because I hate it too, it always goes up my nose and tickles so awfully.” 

There are no words that Hux can think of that won’t risk massively offending her, so he remains silent, instead reaching over to the dresser to grab his glasses.

“What time is it?” Rey asks, and then giggles and reaches over for her phone. “Oh, just 7 am. Must have really tired all those kids out yesterday if they’re not up for presents yet!” 

Just then a squeal sounds out the door. Hux lifts an eyebrow. 

“I guess that’s the cue. Shall we?” 

Rey smooths her hair down and straightens her pajamas. “Sure. But I’ve got to grab your gift, first.” 

There’s a fumble and Hux falls off the bed where he’d been leaning over it to reach under the bed. “You got me a gift?” he says, muffled, from the floor. 

“Of course! It’s Christmas. We’re fake dating. If I don’t have a gift for you, what would that look like?” 

Hux strangely hadn’t thought of that when he’d picked out his gift for her. He emerges from the side of the bed with a box in hand. 

Rey reaches into her suitcase and pulls out a box, quite a bit smaller in size. 

“Well then, we’d better get downstairs.” 

They do. The children open all their gifts first, and Hux has to admit, it’s much more magical with Rey by his side, beaming every time a child gasps and squeals over a new gift. Aunt Ruby has gifted them all with ridiculous santa hats, and Rey’s is pulled down over her bedhead and she just looks….beautiful. Beautiful and glowing and happy. Bren reaches over to tug the pom-pom at the end of her hat and Rey giggles and reaches over to tug his back. Aoife sees and clambers over into Rey’s lap to tug her hat off and Rey tickles her little ribs and there’s so much laughter. Hux could live here, in this moment, for the rest of his life. 

The children finish opening their gifts and the grownups exchange their gifts. When Hux hands Rey her gift, she shakes her head shyly and holds her box out first, instead. It’s small, neatly wrapped. The top says “From: Rey; To: Hux” with a heart near Hux’s name. WIth a careful finger, he traces the heart and smiles up at her, reveling in the pinkness of her blush. 

As the wrapping paper falls away and the box opens, his fingers close around a plushy soft fabric. With a sweeping, fluid movement, he pulls it out of the box and there’s a hush as he holds up the most beautiful bottle-green sweater he’s ever seen. What this must have _cost_ …

“Oh, Rey.” he says. 

“Now, stop. Before you say anything, I did _not_ pay full price for that. But no, I’m not going to tell you where it came from. It matches your eyes, I couldn’t pass it up. Plus, you’re so thin, I gotta keep you warm in this winter weather.” Her eyes sparkle as she finishes. 

Hux immediately pulls it over his head and almost groans as the fabric slides against his skin. It’s clearly finely made. Very finely made. And a perfect fit, for that matter. He’ll ask how she managed that one later, in private. 

He pushes his box at her now, eager to see her face when she opens it. Her eyes are wary as she tears the paper off, her fingernails making quick work of the flimsy tape on the edges of the box. When she pulls the bag from between the tissue paper, her face goes blank and Hux feels a fierce sense of pride. She likes it, then. 

It’s a messenger bag, hand-crafted Italian leather with birds and trees embossed into the surface. It was the most “Rey” thing he could find and anyway, he knew she’d been needing a new bag. Her current bag is canvas and the stitching is literally dissolving. If she’d told him she’d been using that bag since her first year of undergrad, he would have been surprised that the bag wasn’t older. 

She’s still silent, staring at the leather of the bag for a long moment before carefully, slowly, reaching out a finger to trace the patterns in the cover. 

“Hux…” she breathes. “It’s so beautiful…” 

“I knew you needed a new one, and I thought you’d like the—” and his next words are muffled around her hair because she’s wrapped her arms around him and is hugging him fiercely. 

“Thank you.” she whispers, and it’s so fierce that Hux feels his chest tighten; it’s not itching anymore, it’s burning, burning, burning. Is this what love feels like? Does he love this girl? The furious burning in his chest is tempered by the shame and fear that curls low into his gut. She can’t know, he’ll ruin everything. _Stick to the plan_. 

The plan. What plan? The plan. 

Rey pulls away and places a soft, wet kiss to his lips—his heart clenches when he realizes that the wet is tears. How many gifts has she been given in her lifetime? How is it possible that this measly bag could cause such an emotional response in her? He pulls her in tighter against his better judgement, and she buries her face in his neck again. 

_It would be so easy_ , his traitorous heart whispers. _Just breathe it into her ear. ‘I love you.’_ And Hux’s spine stiffens at the thought, he cannot. He must be done with such foolishness. As quickly as is possible without causing offense, he disengages himself and tries not to meet her eyes. 

“You’re, uh...very welcome.” He chances a glance at her face and she’s frowning through her tears, she doesn’t understand what the problem is. 

It’s not time yet. He can’t—but soon. He just needs to hang on for a couple of hours. 

Breakfast is a noisy affair, everyone climbing over each other to get to the eggs, or the syrup, or one more pancake. He and Rey eat in quiet, though halfway through the meal she reaches over and interlocks her fingers with his. He is weak, and he allows himself this small comfort, eating his breakfast with his right hand while Rey eats with her left. Across the table, Aoife and Siobhan are eager to finish eating to go play with their toys again, Robbie and Stephanie are chatting about the new software program Robbie’s gotten from his parents, and Aunt Ruby further down the table pinches Uncle Scott’s cheeks when he makes a silly, loving comment about her to another of Hux’s aunts at the table. The atmosphere is warm. 

It’s not perfect, by any means. Hux can’t look his father in the eye, and his mother is forever pained by the discomfort between them. Aunt Ruby and his father will never agree on some great-great uncle’s favorite pastime, or the weather, or some specific political issue. Robbie is always going to be a jerk, and Stephanie will always shoot Hux mournful, pleading gazes instead of taking his side against Robbie. 

But for the first time, Hux finds himself inclined to agree with Rey instead of Ben. Ben, who always declares “the less family, the better!” And Rey. Rey, who is currently looking over the scene, same as he is, but with misty, wondrous eyes. He can only imagine the way she must feel to be surrounded by all these loving people. They do, they love her, Hux has no doubt. Stephanie leans across the table to ask Rey her opinion on something Robbie has just said, and Aunt Ruby glances down the table with a self-assured smile to watch the exchange. His mother is beaming as she notices their joined hands on the table, and even his father looks a little less stern than usual as he regards Rey. 

He can’t take this from her. He can’t. He looks at his watch, it’s only 11, but perhaps Ben…

As if on cue, his phone beeps. A text. He pulls his hand out of Rey’s to answer it, and she eagerly puts the extra hand to work shoveling more food into her mouth.

_11:07 AM: here. have you done it_

_11:08 AM: Not yet. She’s still eating breakfast._

_11:09 AM: my parents are upset about me leaving on christmas morning, i don’t have all day_

_11:10 AM: Why don’t you come inside. It’s best if everyone hears, anyway._

_11:11 AM: it’s dumb that the front door is unlocked you know_

Hux rolls his eyes and looks to Rey. She’s just finishing her second plate of food, setting her utensils down on the table and huffing contentedly. She looks to Hux and her smile droops a bit when she sees his face. 

“Is everything alright? It’s not your boss, is it?” she says, reaching out to touch his hand. He recoils, a knee-jerk reaction but strong enough to send a flicker of hurt across Rey’s face. 

“It’s not my boss. May I speak to you in the other room for a moment?” 

Her face is pained and confused, and it sends a thick ache through Hux. 

“I suppose.” 

She follows him into the next room and they stop near the fireplace, Hux making sure to subtly linger close enough to the door that someone will overhear them. 

“Rey, I don’t think...I don’t think I can do this. We’re not working.” His voice is clear and strong, loud enough to carry into the next room but calm enough to make it seem effortless. 

“What—what are you doing?” She asks, and her voice is raised as well, thankfully. 

“You’re—I’m not right for you. We’re not right for each other.” 

“How can you—I don’t understand what you’re saying!” 

“Can’t you? Well, then perhaps I should make it simpler. I’m done. Our relationship is over. This arrangement has been good, but it’s played out its course.” 

“Hux! I thought we—this isn’t how it’s supposed to happen!” Rey is frantic now, her eyes wide, her hands clenching and unclenching as she breathes, heavy and unsteady. 

“It doesn’t matter. It’s finished.” 

“Finished? Like I’m some kind of project to you? I thought it was more! I thought we were more than that!” 

“Rey—see some sense. You’re entirely too young for me, I have a well-established career and routine and your future has only just barely begun. Our lives don’t match up. Neither do our personalities, to be frank.”

The first tear falls from the corner of Rey’s eyes at the same time that a fissure, deep and wide, forms in Hux’s heart. All at once he knows that she’s not acting, that this is genuinely distressing for her. He didn’t—this isn’t what he’d planned. Once her tears start, they escalate, quickly. 

“Rey, calm down. You’re making a scene.” he says, quieter. 

“I’m making a scene?!” she cries, raising both of her clenched fists into the air, beating at Hux’s chest as she continues. “You’re the one making a scene—and on Christmas!” 

Just then, Ben steps into the room and Rey stops, hiccuping mid-sob. “What is he doing here?” 

Ben makes an awkward face and looks at Hux. 

“He’s, ah. He’s here for one of us.” Hux’s voice is hushed. “If you wish to leave, Ben is willing to take you home with him. You can spend the rest of the holidays with his family.” 

Rey’s eyebrows pull together. “You knew!” 

Ben looks down at the floor. 

Hux continues. “But if you’d like to stay here, Ben will take me home, and you can enjoy the rest of the holidays with my family.” 

Rey scoffs. “I can’t spend the rest of the holidays with your family without you. That defeats the entire purpose of this whole….stupid _thing_.” 

“I assure you, Rey. They like you a whole lot more than they like me, especially right now.” 

Rey looks to Ben once more. “Well, I’m sure not going with you, you jerk! You betrayed me. You knew what he was planning and you didn’t think to warn me!” 

She turns on Hux again. “You called him, last night, didn’t you?!” Her voice is raising. “Couldn’t stand the thought of being around me for any longer, so you called _my best friend_ to help rescue you.

“And you, Ben...you helped him.” At this, Rey’s voice breaks over a sob and she pushes past both of them, out of the room. 

“So...I suppose I’m going with you, then.” Hux says to Ben, who laughs, dry and harsh. 

“I _suppose_. Do you have your stuff?” 

“Yeah, I packed up this morning while Rey was in the shower. Just in case.” 

When Hux opens the bedroom door, Rey is nowhere to be found. He scribbles a quick note and leaves it on the bed, gathers his bags, and walks out of the room. 

He is cold inside as he gets into Ben’s car. As he watches Bren fling the front door open and yell some incomprehensible thing from the front porch. As he watches Rey’s face from their bedroom window on the second story, stoic through the tears. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Rey's bag.](https://www.etsy.com/listing/269762000/medium-leather-messenger-bag-in-distress?ref=related-6) I have a tiny sploosh of word vomit detailing the mortifying workday wherein Hux got caught cruisin the internet looking for Rey's gift by...every. single. one. of. his. female. coworkers.
> 
> Special thanks to Isharan for spending all that dumb time helping me think about christmas gifts and stuff, and for just...ya know, generally bein awesome and lovely and wonderful. She writes, so achingly beautifully—go check her stuff out. She's literally the reason this fic is still going. Here's her profile: http://archiveofourown.org/users/IshaRen/pseuds/IshaRen
> 
> Sorry this is so late, I know I promised it would be FINISHED by now, but...I've been feeling gross and honestly, I don't even know why I expect vacations to be chill. Moms don't get to chill :D 
> 
> I hope you all had wonderful Holidays! Feel free to tell me about em in the comments.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, yes. I'll explain later.

Hux doesn’t know what to do with himself, and it’s clear that Ben doesn’t either. They haven’t seen Rey in a couple of weeks, so every day it’s just the two of them in the silence of their strangely cold apartment. It’s quickly apparent to both of them that Rey is the source of sunshine in this place. 

About halfway through the time without Rey (as Hux is unofficially calling it in his head), Ben tries to bring up...what happened. They’re in the living room, Ben sprawled on the couch staring at the ceiling, Hux in the chair off to the side trying to pretend he’s reading.

“Hux, if you’ve—have you thought about talking to her about what happened?” 

Hux shoots him a fiery glare. “What good would that do? You know she won’t speak to either of us.” 

“I know. I miss my best friend, okay? That’s all. You called me, and you told me that what you were going to do was best for her, for all of us. But it doesn’t feel that way, Hux. I trusted you, and I just want to make sure you’ve done everything you can. My friendship essentially rests on that.” 

Hux turns his head, closing his eyes into the weight of Ben’s words. He’s right. This isn’t what Hux wanted. He’d hoped that Rey would understand, that she’d play along and they’d be able to go back to normal. 

Ha! Normal. As if that existed anymore, after everything that happened between them. How could Hux go back to treating her like his roommate’s best friend after so many kisses and touches and….feelings?

He couldn’t bring himself to acknowledge the truth of it. Not after she’d looked at him with tears in her eyes. Any hope he’d had of more between them someday was gone. So then, what was the point of admitting his feelings when they’d never be returned?

_________

He ignores all calls from his family, preferring to languish on the couch or chair in agony instead. He goes to work and comes home, eats only as little as he can manage, and sleeps even less. He never had any friends besides Ben and Rey, and now...well, he doesn’t see anyone except Ben when they’re missing Rey together. 

This is the state of things when, two weeks after the Christmas Debacle, Hux and Ben hear a knock on their door. 

“Are you expecting someone?” Hux asks, bending his neck to look back at Ben. 

“No. You?” 

“No.” 

The knock sounds again, this time firmer. Hux raises his eyebrows and heads over to the door, undoing the latch and turning the knob. 

It’s his father. Brendol Hux, Sr. is standing in his doorway. For a moment, Hux just stands, open-mouthed, while his father gazes calmly back at him, if a little stony. 

“Armitage.” His father says, nodding once down at him. “If you’re not busy, I have some things I’d like to say.” 

Ben shoots up from the couch and rushes into his room with a half-hearted wave, whispering “I’ll just leave you guys to it.” 

Still stunned, Hux directs his father towards the chair and then sits on the couch. Acutely, he feels the inadequacy of his appearance. It’s a Sunday, so his last shower was Friday morning, and his hair feels greasy and disgusting. He’s wearing a pair of sweats that he put on Friday night after work, and a t-shirt that he shrugged on this morning after getting out of bed. As always, his father looks immaculate—no doubt dressed for church earlier that day in his crisp three-piece suit. Saturdays were the only days he ever saw his father in anything but a suit. 

“Is everything alright?” Hux asks, leaning forward so that his elbows rest against his knees. 

“Your mother is fine, everyone’s fine. I’m not here for that.” 

“Well...if you don’t mind me asking, sir. Why are you here?” 

For the first time in his life, Hux, Sr. looks….nervous. At the very least unsure of himself. 

“I—well, I’ve been putting off this conversation for far too long, I realize.” 

Hux does his best to just listen, to allow his father the time to formulate his thoughts. He’s never seen his father at a loss for words, ever. This is a strange experience. 

“Rey, well—she told us about the whole thing, what happened. What you asked her to...well, the pretending to date.” 

Ice melts down Hux’s spine and arms. 

“She told us why, as well.” 

“So you’re here to tell me how disappointed you are in me. That I couldn’t manage to land a real girlfriend.” Hux’s jaw clenches as he speaks. 

“I’m here to tell you that I’m disappointed, but not for that. I’m not disappointed in you. I’m disappointed in, well. I’m disappointed in me.” His father rubs his fingers together, averting his eyes. “You felt so badly about my opinion of you that you couldn’t—that you couldn’t even come to us and tell us that you were struggling in your personal life. The truth, about Rey.” 

Hux is astonished all over again. Nothing his father has said is untrue, so there’s nothing for him to say, really. 

“I’ve spent a lot of your life comparing you to your brother, and...making you feel like you were shouldering the blame for the circumstances of your birth. It is not, and has never been your fault, Armitage. I know that. I want _you_ to know that. It was always mine.” 

Hux swallows, looking away, as his father makes steady eye contact with him. What does he say? Does one apology make up for a lifetime of crippling feelings of inadequacy? No, Hux thinks. It doesn’t. It can’t. He doesn’t think about it, but he can hear that voice, _thin as a slip of paper_ , and he tries very hard to put it out of his mind. 

“You—” he begins, and the words get stuck in his throat, so he starts again, “You always...Bren was always the better son. I could never be good enough. You think you can just—” 

His father frowns, but his eyebrows pull up in the middle and the effect is just rather pitiful. “I—I was so ashamed of what I did, Armitage. I wanted so badly to just erase, but I knew I needed to...your mother knew we needed to take care of you. You reminded me, every day, of the mistakes I made, over and over again. And you look just like me, Armitage.” 

Hux closes his eyes tight. 

“Bren was a way to rectify my mistakes. Your mother and I—we couldn’t conceive. You were a slap in her face, really. But then...there he was. He was not born of a tragic mistake I had made.” 

“You made me feel...less. My whole life.” Hux says. He opens his eyes and looks at his father. HIs father has unshed tears shining in his eyes—eyes that look just like his, only eons older. 

“I know, Armitage. And I can never change that. I am so...profoundly sorry.” 

“So, you just came out of the blue to apologize about my entire life?” 

His father swallows. “Well, no. I actually came to talk about Rey.” 

Hux blinks. 

“She’s been over...for dinner a few times.” 

“That’s excellent for her. I’m glad that she didn’t lose you all.” 

“I thought that might be what it was about. You trying to protect her. You always were a very selfless boy.” His father tries for a smile here, but it’s watery and limp. 

Hux can’t say anything. He’s not ready to have this conversation here, not with his father.

“I know your patience is likely running thin. The point is that you need to tell her everything, Armitage. A girl like that doesn’t come around very often. She’s warm and whip smart and everything that you need. And she loves you.” 

At this Hux’s face twists. “Of course she doesn’t. She’s so young, and I’m just her best friend’s weird, older roommate.” 

His father rubs a hand over his smooth jaw and sighs. “Trust me, Armitage. She loves you. She’s just hurt and confused.” 

Hux pauses here and eyes his father. The next words out of his mouth are difficult. “Did she say anything?” 

“She didn’t, but I didn’t make this far into the business industry without the ability to read people.”

Hux shrugs. His father shakes his head and continues. “Even if she doesn’t, Armitage. You need to say your piece. You can’t leave the people that mean the most to you in the dark about your feelings.” 

And strangely, more than anything his father has said this afternoon, it’s that last remark that hits him the hardest, and his heart clenches painfully, his hands shaking where they’re squeezed tight over his knees. No, one afternoon conversation and apology cannot mend a life of relationship troubles, but perhaps it can be the start. And perhaps, perhaps it can be the catalyst for the breaking of the cycle. 

_________

It takes him a while to convince Ben to give him Rey’s address, but in the end, his desperate eyes and shaking hands seal the deal. Ben rips a slip of paper off of the notepad on the fridge, eyes on Hux the whole time, and writes the address down. He raises an eyebrow as Hux takes it and walks to the front door with no shoes or coat. 

“Dude! Wait a second.” Ben calls. “She has a code, you’ve got to type it in at the door or have somebody buzz you up.” 

Hux blinks. “Do you have the code?” 

Ben grimaces and shakes his head. “I don’t, sorry. I don’t go to her place often enough for that. But the neighbors are nice, somebody will buzz you up.” 

Hux nods and wraps his fingers around the door knob. 

“Hux! Shoes!” Ben says, and Hux huffs and turns to slip on a pair of Ben’s shoes sitting by the door. Then he leaves. 

The drive to Rey’s apartment is quiet. What is he going to say? He’s not sure. The truth, definitely. She deserves it. After all of this, she deserves it. If there’s even the _smallest_ chance he was wrong and she felt....he can’t live in agony any longer. 

He buzzes one of Rey’s neighbors and kindly explains the situation to them. “Will you buzz me up?” 

“Sorry, buddy. How do I know you’re not a crazy guy? You sound a little crazy.” 

“I won’t argue, but I promise that I’m not here to harm anyone.” 

“Ahhh—I’m gonna pass this time, dude. Sorry.” 

The next neighbor gives a similar answer, so with the third neighbor, he pretends to be a delivery man. It works, surprisingly without much fuss, and he pulls open the door and begins the long trek up the stairs. Rey lives on the top floor (of course she does). 

Hux is woefully out of breath by the time he reaches her door, and he gives himself a moment to calm his racing pulse, to smooth back the edges of his sweat-damp hair. Then he raises his arm to knock, his heartbeat skittering out of control again. 

There’s no answer. He waits the requisite amount of time before knocking again. And again. Finally, he calls through the door. “Rey? Rey? It’s Hux. I—I know you don’t want to see me but...please open up?” 

There’s silence, maybe the sound of something or someone shifting behind the door, but he can’t be sure. Still, the small sound gives him hope, and he knocks again, continuing to speak. “Rey! Please—there’s so much I need to tell you. These last...these last weeks have been awful for me, and I just need to talk to you.” 

Definite tapping behind the door, but it doesn’t open. She must be standing there, listening. That’s fine. Hux wouldn’t want to see his face if he were her, either. 

“It’s—it’s okay if you don’t want to let me in, just—I’m gonna say my piece out here, okay? I know you can hear me.” 

He licks his lips, folds his arms, and leans against the wall next to her door. “I know I said...I know I asked you to pretend for me, and I did mean it when I asked you. I just—somewhere along the way, it got too real. It wasn’t pretend anymore. You—you’re so witty and smart, and you always know what to do and the right thing to say. My family took to you immediately—even my father, if you can believe that.

“I’ve been avoiding calls and texts for the last two weeks from all of my relatives, telling me I’m a stupid git for letting you go. And Rey...they’re right. It was wrong of me to bring Ben there, instead of just telling you what was wrong. And it’s not fair, to you or Ben, for me to keep letting that story stand. 

“I just kept thinking about my family—all these people you have come to love and who very definitely love you—listening to you say all those horrible things about me, pretending you’re mean enough to dump me like that? It would have made them angry at you. And I know, I know that was the point. To save me from horrible family dinners where everyone asks me if I was single. 

“But I couldn’t bear the thought of taking anyone away from you, all these people who love you. You appreciate that, you deserve as much of it as you can manage. I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if anyone actually loved me, why was this plan ever about me at all?” 

Hux closes his eyes and takes a deep breath before continuing, allowing himself to slide down the wall so that he’s sitting, in his sweats, in Ben’s shoes and a horrible case of greasy bedhead, in front of Rey’s doorstep. The deep breath helps center him, and he goes on.

“And in the end...the real reason I couldn’t do it was...well, Rey? I love you. I took a stupid, fake arrangement, and I fell in love with you. I fell in love with that lovely smile of yours, and the way you rub your feet together when you’re watching a movie. I fell in love with your mischievous smile, and the way you raise your eyebrows at me when you’re about to do something I’m really going to like.” 

Another deep breath, this time to steady his voice. 

“I love that bit of skin on the back of your neck, just below your hairline, it’s so soft and it smells so sweet. I love the way that our hands fit together. I loved falling asleep next to you and waking up with you in my arms. I didn’t think—I didn’t think you could ever feel the same about me, and I used that to push you away, perhaps more cruelly than I should have.

“I know that I’ve been an inexcusable jerk, and that I’ve caused you a lot of confusion and pain by not being honest with you. I don’t blame you if you decide not to forgive me. I wouldn’t. But...now you know the truth. And that’s important to me. Thank you for letting me sit outside your door and blubber.” 

Hux sighs, waits a moment to see if she’ll open the door now. She doesn’t. He allows himself a moment of genuine heartbreak and then pulls himself up to standing position. He takes one last look at her door, the peeling blue paint, the numbers hung a little crooked. And then he turns to head back down the stairs, and freezes in place. 

Rey. She’s standing on the top step, staring at him with wide eyes. There’s a paper sack in her hands, and she’s wearing sweatpants as well. As they stand there, gazes locked, her eyes go a little glassy and she reaches her free hand up to squeeze the bridge of her nose. In an unexpected movement, she reaches down to set her bag on the ground and then propels herself forward, into Hux’s arms. She buries her nose in the shoulder of his t-shirt and squeezes him around the middle as tight as she can. 

After a moment of shock, Hux brings his arms up around her shoulders, holding her to him as well. 

Rey pulls away, sniffing through her unshed tears, her hands still on his waist. “I think you should come in for a cup of tea, Hux.” She says. 

Hux can only nod, slightly mortified, despite the fact that he meant for her to hear all of that. Having her in front of him, having heard it, is different than shouting it through the door and then leaving. 

She unlocks the door and gestures for him to go ahead of her, and he’s treated to his first look at her apartment. It seems strange—he can only picture her in _his_ apartment, on _his_ couch, at _his_ table. But this place suits her as well. 

It’s decorated in bronze, brown, in faded leather. The pieces are all different, Hux can tell, but they fit well together, a polished pot with yellow daisies sits on the end table, the wood stained a deep brown. Her couch is leather—very old, cracked and faded. Second—or third—hand, probably. A colorful rug on the floor in the kitchen, handmade? The effect is quite striking. It feels like a home. 

Hux takes a seat at the table, settling into a chair at Rey’s insistence. She busies herself, putting the bag down on the counter and filling a little metal kettle with water and setting it on the stove. She puts away the groceries, mostly breakfast foods, milk, cheese, bread, eggs, yogurt. And then she pulls out two tea cups with saucers, a small dish with sugar cubes, and the tea bags. Watching her, so obviously at home, is comforting to Hux; his heart stops pounding and his head clears, finally. 

The kettle whistles and she brings it to the table, settling it on a folded towel between their cups. 

“Do you take milk or cream with your tea?” She says, the first she’s spoken since they entered. 

“Um, milk, if that’s okay?” Hux is tentative, and she nods and fills his cup up, leaving space for the milk and sugar once the tea has steeped. She fills her own cup and sits, tucking the little bag into the water and folding her hands in front of her. She’s looking straight at Hux, her eyes rimmed red, still. 

“Did you mean all that?” Her voice is small. “Or did you just say it because Ben doesn’t want to apologize to me?” 

Hux can’t help himself, he gives her an incredulous stare. “Do you really think—then...you don’t?” 

“Don’t what?” 

“Don’t feel the same? If you think it’s just a joke.” 

She throws her head back and laughs. “Honestly, Hux. You’re the densest person I’ve ever met.” 

He doesn’t appreciate the jab. “Dense? Why?” 

“Of course I feel the same! I’ve felt the same the whole time. Before that, even. Just because you don’t pay any attention to anyone around you, doesn’t mean they’re not paying attention to you!” 

“You...you feel...the same?” Hux squints at her. 

She pulls her tea bag out, stirring her cup with a small spoon and dumping three sugar cubes in. “Milk?” she says, rising to take the few steps to the fridge. Hux scrambles to prepare his tea before she returns.

“Tell me when,” as she pours, and Hux nods, plopping two sugar cubes in and stirring to help dissolve them. The silence between them is heavy as Rey stares into her cup, finally lifting it to her lips and taking a small sip. 

“You’ve been Ben’s roommate for a long time, you know.” She says. Hux nods. “And you’ve never wanted to do anything with us, no matter how many times we ask. You’ve always been a creature of habit, a studious mess, and far too quiet. You seemed...lonely?” 

Hux takes a sip of his tea, closing his eyes. This is perfect, lovely and mild. Soothing. Just the way his mother made it for him when he was home from school for the holidays. 

“I asked Ben about you, but he didn’t have much to say, honestly. So I just watched.” 

“And...what did you see?” Hux says, eyes averted down to the placemat under his cup and saucer. 

“You’re—you carry so much, Hux? By the time you asked me to do this thing for you, I was already halfway in love with you.” 

Hux can feel his ears going pink. This was...not what he had expected. He thought of all the moments where Rey had been over-eager, moments he had chalked up to her youth and perhaps a bit of overzealous lust. Suddenly, he could see them in a new light—he had never been the one who had truly suffered. Any suffering he’d had...well, it had been of his own making, really. Rey had given him every opportunity to move from fake to real and he’d been so blinded, so deluded by his thoughts of morality and chivalry, determined to keep himself from corrupting Rey, that he’d sabotaged himself at every step. And surely—surely Ben would have understood, would have been _happy_ had Hux just told him how he felt. 

He looks up at Rey, his lips parted, eyes wide. “You’re—you’re in love with me?” 

“Yes, you silly idiot. I was never pretending.” 

Hux has to get out from behind this table. Now. In his haste, his knees knock into the underside and tea sloshes out of his cup onto his saucer and placemat. But Hux will not be deterred. He’s wasted _months_ being hesitant and doubting himself. Not now. 

Rey doesn’t stand, and Hux is glad, because it gives him the opportunity to do the thing that he’s been dying to do since he realized that he loves her, really loves her. He falls to his knees in front of her, his hands gripping the sides of her thighs, his face buried in her stomach. 

“Rey—” he cries, closing his eyes into the soft fabric of her shirt. “Rey! I’ve been so stupid.”

Rey rests her hands on the bony ridges of his shoulder blades, smoothing her hands over the cotton covering the planes of his back. 

“Will you—can you ever forgive me?” 

She tuts, a soft noise, and then grips both of his shoulders. “Hux.” she says, and he lifts his face to stare into hers. “I was mad, yes. You put me through the worst type of humiliation possible, and then you just left me! But I understand. I see now, the places where you were crippled by fear and insecurity.” 

With a soft look on her face, Rey smooths the flat of her palm against his cheek, sweeps the front of his hair back away from his face, straightens his glasses. 

Hux can’t breathe, can’t think as she leans down. She has to reach down a bit too far to be comfortable, Hux is sure, but then she’s kissing him, she’s kissing him. For once, Hux isn’t thinking about Ben, about how terrible of an idea this is. He’s not feeling anxious about her feelings, or about someone who could walk in and see. 

It feels right. It feels right as Rey licks his bottom lip and he opens to her, as she wraps both arms around his neck and slides off of her chair to join him on the floor. She ends up in his lap, her forehead pressed to his (smashing his glasses, but he doesn’t mind), and they share a quiet laugh, eyes closed. Hux can taste her breath, can feel her heart thrumming against her ribs where his hands are pressed against her. 

They stay like this, kissing and nuzzling and whispering until Hux’s legs fall asleep, and he’s clearing his throat and asking if they can maybe move things somewhere more comfortable. 

“Actually,” Rey says, “Is Ben home? I need to go give him some hell for his part in this and then probably apologize for ignoring him for two weeks, too. We are all going to be eating so much apology pizza.” 

Hux throws his head back and laughs. “Yeah, he’s home. Probably waiting for me to call, honestly.” 

“Well, we’re going there. I’ll just—well, no need to get dressed, I suppose.” Rey says, plucking at the worn fabric of her sweatpants. “Let’s go!” 

In the car, Hux finally works up the courage to ask the question he’s been dying to ask since she rounded that corner. “So, Rey...are we? Can we date for real, now?” 

She giggles and reaches for his hand. “Only you would have to ask a question like that, silly man. I thought we already decided on that!” 

Alright, then.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, I know. It's been 9 years. I'm sorry. BuT! I come with a gift. This chapter is 30% longer than all the rest, AND it comes with a GUARANTEED epilogue. I'm writing this for Reyux Week 2017! This chapter is for "Secrets/Confessions" and the next prompt I want to use this week calls for "Dancing" so....that epilogue is gonna get funky! (I know, I'm such a dork)
> 
> I'm so glad that all of you have been on this journey with me. It's been wild! It's been hard for me, at times. And there's still ONE MORE CHAPTER LEFT.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> LooK OKAY I'm sorry this took forever. But it's complete now! I hope you enjoy the fluff. It's been fun for me to work on this for the last week and relive all the fluffy goodness. 
> 
> Happy Birthday Isharen! This is for you—you were always the reason I kept writing. It's only fitting that you're the reason I finished as well.

Their first “official” family event is at Easter. These things are big deals in massively religious Irish families, and besides—everyone is dying to see Rey. Hux grumbles but begrudgingly agrees. They must go. 

It’s even more awkward than any of their fake dates, if possible. Everybody is too jovial, Robbie spends the whole event teasing Hux about hiring a girlfriend, and Rey kisses him too many times for Hux to ever stop blushing and sputtering. 

But there’s chocolate, and his father smiles, just for a few seconds as Rey’s laughter rings out across the large room. Things are mending. 

Holidays after that are much of the same. Hux’s birthday is in the summer; the whole family gathers around the pool to eat ice cream cake and sing and laugh about Hux’s freckles (which is funny, considering they’ve all got the same curse). Rey smears ice cream all over his nose and then kisses it away in front of his whole family. He’s wise to her antics now, and he pushes her into the pool. After making sure she’s not holding her phone, of course—some things never change. Ben is there, and he laughs louder than anyone else as Rey tackles Hux to the ground, soaking wet. Hux loses his glasses.

The Hux clan celebrates the Fourth of July rather begrudgingly, despite the fact that it’s a good excuse for everyone to drink something a little less posh than wine (though Ben will always hold that it’s still too pretentious to drink beer that costs more than $25 a six-pack at a _barbecue_ ). Bren and Sarah don’t come, but they do video call to show everyone the newest member of their family—a little boy. Rey eats 7 hot dogs and 2 hamburgers, and Robbie loses $20. Hux has 2 hot dogs and 1 hamburger, as well as a modest portion of each of the salads and side dishes.

September is Rey’s birthday, and Hux bemoans the fact that they’ve almost known each other a year but Hux hasn’t been able to buy Rey any proper gifts (the Christmas gifts were awkward and pretentious, they all agree). Ben helps him plan the surprise party with all of their friends—at this point they’ve been dating long enough for Hux to have met Finn and Poe, Rey’s dear friends from high school. Ben also helps him plan the second surprise after that, dessert on the patio and a ring in a box. Rey is startled but not surprised—they’d talked about this extensively between themselves, and Rey has only agreed to say yes if she gets exclusive rights to that red Millenium Falcon shirt. 

So, of course, Hux brought the shirt and slips it over her head after the ring. They kiss and call Hux’s parents. His mother screams, his father congratulates them. And sniffs, maybe. But it could be static from his end of the line. 

As poetic as it would be to be married at Christmas, everyone agrees that it’s just impractical to plan a wedding in three months, so they wait. They’re married in April, instead.

Rey is a vision in white. The dress is a knee-length vintage lace affair, and she’s got yellow flowers in her hair and hands. Hux can’t see anything but her, and when he takes her hand he knows it’s forever. 

They say their vows—the ones the priest makes them repeat, and the ones they’ve written themselves—and Rey turns to Ben, behind her, to retrieve a small leather notebook, embossed with green leaves. 

Hux’s breath catches and his eyes tear up—or, no. They’re not tearing up, his glasses are just dirty. But that is the notebook that he’d slipped into her bag at Christmas, the notebook he’d written in—a trite, idiotic caricature of his feelings now. And she’s used it to pen her wedding vows. 

Hux knows he’ll never forget this moment as long as he lives. He’ll never forget any of these moments. Certainly not the way her hair curls around the flower petals, the way her eyes sparkle as he speaks, the red of her lips as she bites it just before they’re pronounced husband and wife.

They kiss, the whole room cheers, and they dance off into the sunset together. 

Well, to be fair, the sun’s long set by the time they escape. And they’re running, not dancing—but who could dance with Ben chasing after them, holding a can of silly string? Rey grumbles something about extra pepperoni as Hux slams his door shut, locking the car and leaning in for a kiss that is more smiles meeting than kissing at all. 

And even though it’s not exactly like the fairytales said it would be, everything is perfect. 


End file.
